In San Jose, a center of California’s housing crisis, one of the oldest and last remaining Japanese-owned farms in the state will be demolished to pave the way for urban housing. San Jose is home to one of only three existing Japantowns in the country and the only one built on agricultural roots. In July, the San Jose City Council voted to turn the Sakauye family’s 23-acre fruit orchard into a mixed-used development constituting nearly 1,500 apartment units and town houses. Vanessa Hatakeyama, the acting director of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, said the Sakauye farm is a remnant of San Jose’s agricultural landscape — one that was built by Japanese immigrants — before it was transformed by the tech and suburban housing booms. In July, the San Jose City Council voted to turn the Sakauye family’s 23-acre fruit orchard into a mixed-used development constituting nearly 1,500 apartment units and town houses.

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Persons: Vanessa Hatakeyama, ” Hatakeyama, they’d, Eichii, Ed ” Sakauye, Yuwakichi, Sakauye, of San Jose Eichii Sakauye, Edward Seely, “, ”, Rosemary Kamei, Kamei’s, Kamei, Ben Leech, Carolyn Sakauye, Jane May, Leech Organizations: San Jose City, Japanese American Museum of San, ” Preservation, ., Preservation, of San, City, city’s Department of Parks ,, Neighborhood Services Locations: Jose, San Jose, Japanese American Museum of San Jose, Silicon, California, Heart Mountain , Wyoming, Heart, of San Jose