2026 Nisei Week Queen Candidates Make Official Debut Ahead of August 15 Coronation and Award Celebration
LOS ANGELES – July 12, 2026 – The 2026 Nisei Week queen candidates took center stage today for their first official public appearance at the 84th Nisei Week Festival Opening Ceremony, held at the Japanese American National Museum Democracy Center.
The seven candidates will vie for the prestigious title of Nisei Week Queen on Saturday, August 15, at 6:30 p.m. during the Coronation and Awards Celebration. The event will take place at the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Tom Bradley Theatre (514 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles). Tickets are available for $105 (orchestra) or $75 (balcony) per person. For ticket information, visit NiseiWeek.org.
Upon official coronation, the 2026 queen and court will represent the Nisei Week Foundation at this year’s festival and other community events locally and nationally throughout the year.
The 2026 Nisei Week queen candidates:
Kara Kimiko Chu (Orange County Nikkei Coordinating Council) is 23 years old and holds a bachelor’s degree in applied linguistics with minors in digital humanities and professional writing from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a content designer at ServiceNow, where she creates engaging user experiences to help major global businesses automate workflows using artificial intelligence. Kara is committed to ensuring AI celebrates culture and bringing Asian American representation into the future of AI technology. She enjoys escape room puzzles, team trivia, and family board games. She also loves making balloon animals, origami cranes, and her signature pumpkin cinnamon crunch butter mochi. She chose the Issei and Nisei Farmers: Their Legacy Project as her platform.
Emily Kaori Gruhn (Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute) is 25 years old and received her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in education from the University of California, Irvine. She currently works in real estate development as a project manager on a team focused on building affordable housing in Los Angeles. She hopes to one day lead her own affordable housing project before returning to school to pursue an MBA. Outside of her professional goals, Emily enjoys traveling, finding great deals, taking public transportation, optimizing her sleep, and spending quality time with friends and loved ones. She has chosen the Little Tokyo Service Center as her platform.
Ai Grace Kusayanagi (Japanese Restaurant Association of America) is 23 years old and received her bachelor’s degree with a concentration in neurodevelopmental disability care from Kyushu University and a post-baccalaureate in speech-language pathology from San Diego State University. She’s an aspiring speech-language pathologist and will attend graduate school in the fall. She currently works as a behavior interventionist and is an advocate for individuals with disabilities. Ai hopes to join research laboratories to publish papers on the connectivity between brain music and therapy. She previously worked in Japan and hopes to go back to serve as a speech-language pathologist. Ai enjoys scrap journaling, bead embroidery, painting, Zumba, musical theater, yoga, traveling and learning new languages. She chose Seinan Koreisha Senior Care as her platform.
Jacqueline Fujiko Naito (East San Gabriel Valley Japanese Community Center) is 24 years old and received her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with a minor in public health from California State University, Fullerton. She is an administrative assistant for the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks Executive Office where she supports community-focused initiatives. She plans to pursue an MBA to build a career in event operations and give back to the community by creating programs that positively impact others. Jacqueline enjoys painting, arts and crafts, experimenting with new recipes, visiting nurseries, and gardening in real life and in the Stardew Valley video game. As a former Division I water polo athlete, she stays active through swimming, running, volleyball, and ocean fishing. She chose the Little Tokyo Business Association as her platform.
Meagan Sueko Pham (San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center) is 25 years old and received her bachelor’s degree in public health from California State University, Fullerton. She currently works as a patient care assistant at City of Hope and plans to become a registered nurse so she can continue providing compassionate care to patients and their families. Meagan enjoys staying active through basketball, snowboarding, and going on nature walks. She also loves traveling and capturing moments through photography. She’s a big fan of baseball and football and enjoys watching sports games. Meagan chose the Japanese American National Museum as her platform.
Kailah Julianne Tokushige (Gardena Evening Optimist Club) is 26 years old and holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce with a concentration in international business strategy from the University of Calgary. She currently works at Aiya America Inc. / Aiya Matcha as a sales assistant, supporting the retail division by placing products in grocery stores and maintaining key account relationships. She hopes to grow her skills through more analytical projects and compete in an Excel competition. Kailah enjoys staying active through pickleball, training for HYROX competitions and marathons. To develop her storytelling skills, she is exploring photography and videography to capture and share her travels and life experiences. She chose the Terasaki Budokan as her platform.
Deena Maiko Umeda (Venice Japanese Community Center & Venice-West Los Angeles Japanese American Citizens League) is 26 years old and received her bachelor’s degree in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She works at the Little Tokyo Service Center as a program coordinator for Okaeri and Changing Tides, creating programming for Japanese Americans and AAPI communities across Los Angeles and California, She hopes to continue building a career in advocacy spaces. In her free time, Deena enjoys cooking, indoor and outdoor gardening, arts and crafts, including felting and sewing, creative writing, performing, makeup, and playing riichi-style mahjong. She chose the Little Tokyo Community Council as her platform.
The Coronation and Awards Celebration is set to be a memorable event with co-hosts actor Tamlyn Tomita and ABC7 Eyewitness News anchor David Ono. In addition to the queen coronation, the Frances K. Hashimoto Community Service honorees, President’s Award honoree and Grand and Parade marshals will be celebrated.
The 84th Nisei Week Japanese Festival is a nine-day event first held in 1934 and is recognized today as one of the longest running cultural festivals in the United States. This event will take place in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo district from August 15-23. For the festival schedule, visit NiseiWeek.org, call the Nisei Week Foundation office at (213) 687-7193 or email info@niseiweek.org.
