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How Many Are We?

By David Yamaguchi
The North American Post

<a href=httpscapaawagovresourcesapa facts wa statecapaa 2020 demography report target= blank rel=noopener>httpscapaawagovresourcesapa facts wa statecapaa 2020 demography report<a>

On Jan. 6, the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) released its Community Demography Report based on 2020 U.S. census data. A brief snapshot of the data for ethnic Japanese (Nikkei) is at right.

Perhaps the most interesting is the 66-percent versus 34-percent division of “speak English very well” and not. This suggests that the present ratio of Japanese Americans to immigrants (war brides & Shin-Issei) is 66:34.

It is also useful to know that the number of Nikkei is growing.
The full report, presented as a series of 24 slides, is available on the website noted above.

The bottom line is that Japanese comprise 91,000 in the state: 2/3 Japanese Americans and 1/3 immigrants. This interpretation is possible because now is a rare time when such clear division is possible. Few bilingual JA Nisei remain, while many Shin-Issei are recent immigrants, not yet comfortable in English.

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David Yamaguchi is a third-generation Japanese American [Sansei]. He has written for the Post since 2006, at first as a volunteer, later as a paid freelancer. He joined the paper's staff in May 2020, when he began learning how articles flow from Word files through layout to social media.