JANM’s Nikkei Children’s Book Festival is on Saturday, September 20

Editors please note: JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo. 

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will present the Nikkei Children’s Book Festival on Saturday, September 20, 2025. The festival will be held at the Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center) from 10 a.m.–3 p.m. General admission is $10 and tickets are available at janm.org/events.

Dokushyo no Aki means “fall is for reading” in Japanese, expressing the sentiment that the cozy and short days of autumn are the best time to pick up a book. During the festival, readers of all ages can celebrate the breadth and diversity of children’s literature across the Japanese American community. The festival will be full of author storytimes for kids, Q&As for adults, activities for all ages, and a special pop-up bookstore from the JANM Store. The festival is sponsored by the Port of Long Beach. 

On Saturday, November 15, 2025, JANM Book Club presents Monster Maker with Debbi Michiko Florence and Mark Nagata at the Democracy Center. The program will be from 2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. and the general admission is $5. Tickets are available at janm.org/events. Author Debbi Michiko Florence and artist Mark Nagata will come together for a special reading of Florence’s new book Monster Maker: The Strange Creatures of Mark Nagata. Following the reading will be a conversation between Florence and Nagata moderated by JANM’s Director of Retail Enterprise, Maria Kwong. She was also the exhibition curator for Kaiju vs Heroes: Mark Nagata’s Journey through the World of Japanese Toys, which first connected the two panelists. Monster Maker will be available at the JANM Store. The JANM Book Club is a series of public programs that highlight new publications by Japanese Americans or related to Japanese American history and culture.

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About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a center for civil rights, ensuring that the hard-fought lessons of the World War II incarceration are not forgotten. A Smithsonian Affiliate and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories. JANM is a center for the arts as well as history. It provides a voice for Japanese Americans and a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over one hundred exhibitions onsite while traveling forty exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond from early January 2025 through late 2026. For more information, visit janm.org/OnTheGo or follow us on social media @jamuseum.