NIKKEI GRANT | 2026-2027 George and Sakaye Aratani “Community Advancement Research Endowment” Award Applications to be Accepted between Oct. 2 and Dec. 4, 2026

NIKKEI GRANT | 2026-2027 George and Sakaye Aratani “Community Advancement Research Endowment” Award Applications to be Accepted between Oct. 2 and Dec. 4, 2026

Posted on September 24, 2026 by Cultural News

UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center is pleased to announce that the 2026-2027 Aratani CARE Award applications will be accepted between Friday, October 2 and Friday, December 4, 2026, 5 pm.  Awards will be announced in January 2027.  Information about the funding and how to apply is available at the Aratani CARE web site: https://www.aratanicare.org/

The George and Sakaye Aratani “Community Advancement Research Endowment” or Aratani CARE Awards are given to projects that benefit the Japanese American community.  Projects that strengthen ties between the Japanese American community and UCLA students, staff, and faculty are encouraged.  Award recipients must list and acknowledge UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center and the George and Sakaye Aratani CARE Award as co-sponsors on all PR and programs.

Non-profit organizations and qualified individuals are invited to apply for awards that generally range from, but are not limited to, $1,000 to $5,000.  Recent past awardees include:

1. Asayake Taiko at UCSD, “Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational 2026: Ride the Wave,” an annual event held in May at UC San Diego.
2. Burn a Light Productions, for “The Noble Witness,” a short documentary about “99-year-old wood-carving artist Shoji Oda, one of the last living survivors of the Japanese American concentration camps.”
3. Collaborative Cataloging Japan, “Transpacific Signals: Japanese American Video and the Circulation of Culture,” a community storytelling initiative, highlighting the legacy of “Japanese artists and grassroots video makers who experimented with media in the 1970s-1990s.”
4. Community Partners FBO Kansha History Project, “Appreciating the History of Southern California Nikkei Farmers” event at Tanaka Farms in Irvine, at which Kansha volunteers presented transcribed prewar farm records to descendants.
5. Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute, “Then and Now: From WWII Incarceration to Today’s ICE Raids—Justice Demands Our Voice” program, for the Day of Remembrance, February 28, 2026.
6. Greater Los Angeles JACL, “Southern California Intercollegiate Nikkei Council’s Nikkei Professionals” event to connect Japanese American professionals with students preparing to enter the workforce.
7. Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, to support the purchase of a kiosk to enable visitors to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center to interact with the AI-driven StoryFile of Dr. Takashi Hoshizaki, a former World War II draft resister, Ph.D. botanist, and prominent UCLA alumnus.
8. Janice D. Tanaka, “Sansei and Intergenerational Trauma,” a public program featuring films by Satsuki Ina, Janice Tanaka, and Janice D. Tanaka, with a panel discussion of the effects of Nisei incarceration experience on their children, in Fall 2026.
9. Japanese American Citizens League – Arizona Chapter, “Gila River Connections: A Celebration of Shared History,” an event bringing together JA concentration camp survivors, their descendants, members of the Gila River Indian Community, students, and allies, Feb.19-22, 2026.
10. Japan History Council of New York, “Mapping Japanese Heritage and Landmarks in New York: Building a Digital Archive for Japanese and Japanese American Communities,” a bilingual digital- mapping project led by the Digital Museum of the History of Japanese in New York.
11. Kizuna, “Nikkei Community Internship 2026” program offered college students opportunities to contribute to their communities and earn a stiped through work experience at a Japanese American nonprofit organization or small business.
12. Kyodo Taiko held its “27^th Annual Spring Concert” at UCLA on May 30, 2026, welcoming students, faculty, Southern California taiko community, and all community members interested in exploring Japanese American culture through the art of Japanese drumming.
13. A. Artcore Center, “Lydia Takeshita Archive and Exhibit Project” to index and archive the drawings, photos, and publications of Takeshita (1926-2019), a UCLA student, Cal State LA professor, and founder of Artcore Gallery in the Arts District and Little Tokyo.
14. Little Tokyo Historical Society, “Shimbun: Narrative Short & Feature Film Development,” to develop a film about Sei Fujii, Issei newspaper publisher and community leader in prewar Little Tokyo.
15. LTSC Community Development Corporation, to create two videos for the “Okaeri Voices: Next Gen” program, to convey the perspectives of younger LGBTQ+ Nikkei on racial and sexual identity, lived experiences, mental health, and current events, for Okaeri’s YouTube channel.
16. Lua Kobayashi, “Inochi no Suna: Memories Carried in Sand,” an immersive photography exhibition that “highlights archival artifacts and lived stories from Eastern California, to be exhibited at Manzanar National Historic site and later in Los Angeles.
17. Nichi Bei Foundation, the “2026 Films of Remembrance: Little Tokyo and Gardena Showcases” presented JA “incarceration history through film programs with filmmaker panels and community dialogue” at the Japanese American National Museum and Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute.
18. Okinawa Association of America, “Decolonial Community Writing Project,” to research and write more than 80 entries on Okinawan culture for a second OAA book on Okinawan history and community in Los Angeles.
19. Southeast Japanese School and Community Center, “Centennial Documentary Screening and Outreach Program” series to introduce their community history through film and cultural arts demonstrations, in commemoration of their 100^th
20. UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, “An Archaeology of Okinawan Diaspora,” the first archaeological project to focus on the Okinawan diaspora in the U.S., documenting the site of an early-20^th-century farmhouse built by Okinawan immigrants in Kaua’i.
21. UCLA Nikkei Student Union, NSU’s “40^th Annual Cultural Night” production highlighted Japanese American culture and history through performances by Kyodo Taiko, NSU Odori, NSU Modern, NSU Soran Bushi, and a drama based on JA experiences in incarceration camps during WWII.
22. S. Kabuki Ken Kyu Kai, “The Floating Stage: A Kabuki Celebration of Lineage and Renewal,” a multi-generational kabuki project, will offer “performances, workshops, and documentation that deepen Japanese and Japanese American cultural life in Little Tokyo” in Fall 2026.
23. Visual Communications Media and Jason Tiangco, “BobVisions 2026,” a three-event independent Asian American film and food series, with one program honoring the life and legacy of pioneering filmmaker Robert A. Nakamura, UCLA professor and Visual Communications co-founder.
24. Visual Communications Media LLC and Sharon Yamato, “Iconic Voices: Dramatic Readings from Art Hansen’s Oral Histories of Notable Japanese Americans,” a public program presenting actors portraying renowned figures such as attorney Frank Chuman, war hero Ben Kuroki, draft resister Jim Akutsu, and others.

Non-profit organizations and qualified individuals are invited to apply for awards that generally range from, but are not limited to, $1,000 to $5,000.  Information about the funding and how to apply is available on the Aratani CARE website: https://www.aratanicare.org/