Be the First to Register for 2026 Kizuna Summer Camps!☀️

Kizuna is so excited to announce that our 2026 Summer Camp Registration is now OPEN! Thank you so much for your patience as we plan our 2026 summer season. We can’t wait to see you and your campers!

A Home They Come Back To…

As we head into the final weeks of 2025, we’re excited to launch our Year-End Campaign celebrating Kizuna as a home that youth return to year after year.

From campers to counselors to interns, young people come back to Kizuna because they feel safe, supported, and connected. They grow into leaders who give back to their communities and carry our culture forward. Your generosity sustains this home, ensuring our programs remain a place of belonging and growth for future generations.

Our goal is to raise $10,000 before January 1st, and every gift brings us closer to strengthening this home our youth come back to. Thank you for helping us finish the year strong!

Our hearts are full as we look back on Taste of Kizuna 2025, an unforgettable evening of fine dining, community, and connection at Drago Centro in Downtown Los Angeles. Thanks to the generosity of our guests, sponsors, and partners, this year’s event raised $83,800 in support of Kizuna’s mission to educate, empower, and engage the next generation of community leaders.

Where Can You Find Kizuna Next?

Kizuna Panel at Anime Expo Chibi

Design your own a Japanese mask with us at Ontario Convention Center for Anime Expo Chibi!
Discover the rich history and modern traditions of Japanese masks! From theater to festivals, explore how masks have been used across generations in Japan. In this family-friendly workshop, you’ll create your own paper mask while connecting with Japanese American culture and Kizuna's beloved home, Little Tokyo.

Leadership in Action 2026 Apps are Open!

This 10-week Saturday program in Little Tokyo brings together high school students to learn from community leaders, explore civil liberties issues, and build essential leadership skills through hands-on group projects. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, grow, and make an impact!

Deadline to apply: December 1, 2025

6 Weeks. 400+ Campers. SO MUCH FUN!

Kizuna had our biggest summer camp season yet and it was a wonderful experience bringing Japanese American culture and so many smiles to our campers. We can’t thank our team of 150+ Junior Counselors & Counselors enough, as they truly were the backbone of our summer camps! Some of our favorite highlights include having 2 back-to-back weeks in Gardena, working with Changing Tides again for all 6 weeks, and bringing 5 new & 3 revamped workshops into our curriculum! We already can’t wait to start planning next year.

Please check out our new 2025 Summer Camp Photo Gallery for all of the magical moments over 6 fun weeks!

San Tai San at the Terasaki Budokan was a Blast! 🏀 Thank you so much for having us last Saturday at the San Tai San basketball tournament. We had so much fun creating buttons with all of the players while they waited for their next games. Our basketball button template was especially a huge hit! Looking forward to next year~

Leadership in Action Program is in Full Swing Our teen leadership program has just finished Week 5 (halfway mark) and the 2025 cohort are on great paths of success, as they continue to plan their civil liberties group projects! We have 8 different group projects this year, including (but not limited to) documentaries, books, galleries, and more! Please stay tuned for more info on our Culmination Ceremony on March 29, where our students will present all of their hard work.

Special thanks to all of our community leaders, who come in to inspire and educate our teens. Workshops and tours so far have been led by: Bill Watanabe, Michael and David from Little Tokyo Historical Society, Todd Odagawa, Nikkei Progressives, Michelle Hanabusa from UPRISERS, Carrie Zhang from Asian Mental Health Project, and Dan Kwong. Thank you so much!

Introducing Our 2024 Annual Appeal! We’re in the home stretch of our year-end fundraising campaign, 100K for Kizuna! With $68,000 already raised from Taste of Kizuna and Giving Tuesday, we’re calling on our community to help us cross the finish line and reach our $100,000 goal by January 31st.

This is your last chance to make a tax-deductible donation for 2024 and sustain Kizuna’s programs and mission well into the new year. Let’s go the distance together—join the marathon and push us to the goal!

Anime Expo Chibi Workshop We had such an amazing time at Anime Expo Chibi 2024 in Ontario! 💞 It was such a fun and smooth workshop thanks to our participants, who really locked in and were not afraid to share their thoughts on perseverance, kansha (gratitude), and of course, their favorite spots in Little Tokyo!🍡🍜 We loved seeing everyone’s mini Koinobori (carp streamers) as well as teaching the cultural significance of the koinobori, Children’s Day, and the koi fish in general! 🎏

Leadership in Action Applications Open!

Leadership in Action examines civil liberties and civil rights issues by diving into past violations, surveying current challenges in our diverse communities, and determining a course of action to fight such infringements. Participants will meet in Little Tokyo to learn firsthand from community activists through guided tours, presentations, discussions, hands-on activities & more over 10 Saturday afternoons. Ultimately, participants will educate the public by collaborating, designing, and executing group projects which address civil liberties infringements that are currently happening OR have happened so as to prevent their happening again. Open to teens 13-18 years old. Deadline to apply is December 2nd.

2024 Summer Camp Season Has Ended! ☀️We are thrilled to announce the successful completion of our 2024 Summer Camps! This year, we brought together nearly 300 youth across five locations in Southern California for a fun week of learning and cultural exploration. Our campers, ranging in age from 7 to 13, participated in activities that celebrated Japanese American culture and heritage, guided by our incredible team of Junior Counselors and Counselors. From Japanese Puppet Theater to Omamori to Undoukai, our new curriculum offered something for everyone. A huge thank you to our dedicated staff, volunteers, parents, and community partners, who made this year's summer camps an unforgettable experience!