Aratani/Japan America Theatre

Nice theatre. Looks classy and clean. Can get hot if the aircon isn’t turned on early though. Parking is either on the streets or in one of the parking structures of Little Tokyo.

Beautiful theater. Seats are comfortable. Bathrooms are separated by gender on either side of the entrance. Women’s on the left, as you enter the building, and Men’s on the right. During intermission I admired the Noguchi sculptures. I looked online to find where to park, and decided on parking at Joe’s. It’s a very short walk to the theater and I felt safe returning to my car after the show. I would enjoy returning to see more shows in this simple beautiful theater space.

I recently came to this theater to watch KTown Cowboys as part of the Asian Pacific Film Festival. The theater was a bit hard to find until I got there and realized, I’ve totally been to this quad before!
The theater’s located next to the Japanese Buddhist Temple (exact name escapes me at the moment), and the entrance of the theater faces the quad.
People collecting tickets are right at the door (one entrance), this is pretty much a 1 show/​screen large theater of a semi-​sphere. There are multiple doors into the theater based on where your seats are located.
Overall, comfy seats, good audio, large stage and screen. To my knowledge, a lot of independent films are shown here, especially during the film festival, and the cast/​crew will come up on stage afterwards for Q&A. I also understand that there are live performances as well.
At night time, can get sketchy, safety in numbers. My buddy and I were approached by a guy (doesn’t seem to be homeless) asking for money in a demanding way. Street parking only, some meters are free after 6pm while some say after 8pm. Read the signs carefully.
I’d totally come back to this theater again in the future for another event!

Who knew this theatre actually existed? I sure didn’t. Never ever in my mind would have known about this place if my friend and I didn’t choose this theatre last night to watch VC Digital Posse ver. 2015 (series of shorts by inspiring independent directors) which was part of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Festival.
Parking: Plenty of meter parking to go around. $.50 per hour if you come before 8pm. After 8pm, it’s freeeeeee! If you want more exercise, you can park your car in the art district for free and walk. Look for their 10 hour limit parking spaces.
Location: Located deep in the heart of Little Tokyo.
Ambiance: From the outside, the theatre gives off this grandiose type of atmosphere which makes you feel like you fit in with the rich and famous. Once you step into the theatre it surprises you with it’s warm and intimacy ambiance.
Seating: Practically see everything from every angle where you’re seated at due to its fan shape stage!
Entertainment: Custom designed Bose RoomMatch sound system. Very Niiiiiiiice!
Will definitely keep my eye out for other performances and so should ya’ll. :)

This venue is not too big, not too small… a good seat from anywhere. I know that this theater was closed for a bit and I was hoping that it would re-open…It is now back (and has been for several months) and pretty much the same as before. Simple, yet elegant without being too stuffy. A bit hidden back and away from the hustle-​and-​bustle of JVP but it holds its own. A good variety of shows play here and if we want it to survive, we need to come out and support it. My only complaint is when shows let out after dark, the immediate area seems dimly-​lit and deserted… but check out that stunning view of the DT skyscrapers!

I have a hot spot in my heart for mid-​sized theaters tucked back into ethnic-​y neighborhoods, and the JAT exemplifies why.
You can see and hear from every position. Every seat is comfortable: worn and firm and soft in the right places, never sticky, not even on the real wood arm rests. The facility is simultaneously intimate, casual, and accessible, and yet the theater has an air of formality and elegance. It’s welcoming, antiquated, warm, and clean.
The bathrooms are easy to find but not in your face when you enter the building, and they’re lit so you can’t see directly into your pores.
The stage isn’t so high that you must stretch your neck if you’re lucky enough to be sitting in the front, directly under John Waters and Carrie Fisher, as I was last night.
If you had to wait in line for your show, as we did, you might get to sit rather than stand, as lovely fluid statues and benches flank the entries in such a way as to allow pontification and preparation for entertainment.
Yes, yes to you, JAT. Encore.

Came here on Friday night for the panel discussion with David Byrne and LA’s finest when it comes to advocates for cycling. The outside of the building is minimal yet quite stunning, in my humble opinion. The inside was clean and efficient. Acoustics were solid along with great seats all the way around below or on the mezzanine.
There are parking lots abound $ 4 – 10 bucks. It is a bit hidden so just know that if you’re on San Pedro between 2^nd and 3^rd it is on the south side behind the wall– kind of in the middle of the block with a nice courtyard.

This is a well established theatre located in prime Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles has presented more Japanese performing arts than any other facility outside of Japan, including more than 200 U.S. premieres of Japanese work ranging from The Grand Kabuki to Jazz Legend Sadao Watanabe. It has also been the home to LA Phil and LA Chamber.
Very intimate and views are great from every seats. There are total of 878 seats. There is a beautiful custom-​made traditional Japanese «doncho» [curtain], one of three in U.S. One of the nation’s only «butai» [Japanese wooden performance dance floor]. Excellent venue for performance, rehearsals, seminars, classes, workshops, exhibitions, and more. Easy access to all major freeways (101, 10, 110).
The theatre was venue for the closing night and award ceremony for the 25^th Silver Anniversary of the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival (May 7, 2009). The film «Departures» screening took place followed by reception on the Plaza.
Check the website at

I was able to catch the final performance of the hip-​hopped «Pippin» last month. It was my first time to this theater and I loved the intamacy of it. The production was 1^st class and I will be back for future shows.

I’ve been to this venue several times, always having been lucky to sit near the front. However, due to its small size, it seems as if you’d have a good view no matter where you sat. It’s nice that there’s a theatre that supports Asian-​American actors, though I have to say that I’m usually not interested in the plays/​musicals that are showcased here except for once in a great long while. I think parking in the lot next to it is only $ 4, and I like that it’s in the heart of J-​town so there’s lots of places to eat to choose from before your show.

impressive venue for what it is. seats are somewhat uncomfortable, though.

I have seen several events here over the years, and enjoyed them all. It is a nice venue, and that it is in Little Tokyo is a bonus.
Yesterday afternoon I saw a movie here, Only The Brave, that my Unilocal buddy Ken N is in. It tells the story of the all Japanese 100^th/​442 Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in US military history. Made up of volunteers and draftees from the detention camps, outcasts, they were part of one of the 10 most significant battles of WW II, the rescue of the Lost Battalion. Against all odds, and with massive losses, they were able to free a unit completely surrounded by German forces.
Though a low budget movie, it nicely created a feeling of time and place, giving us backgrounds on the principal characters, their lives before the war and the families and loved ones they left, to serve a country that mistrusted them. A rather standard war movie, in this case accented by prejudice and sacrifice, telling a hitherto untold story. Fighting not only for their country but also for their honor and redemption, this movie examines the universal themes of sadness, loss and heroism as seen through the actors, that play out in battle and haunt us forever. Ken N’s character, for example, in a very affecting performance, is a doctor who volunteers as a medic and follows his friends through life, and more often, death.
There were probably few dry eyes in the house as the credits rolled. The director made a short speech, during which he singled out the veterans in the audience, who got a well deserved round of applause. As the crowd poured out of the theater, they were greeted by a display of WW II era jeeps, guns, and other artifacts on the plaza. As I hefted the 24 pound rifle, I learned that fully loaded with backpack and full weaponry, these soldiers were carrying up to 75 lbs of equipment, minimum.
I wandered off to the South end of the Plaza, and for the first time saw the black stone memorials of those LA Japanese Americans who died fighting for their adopted country. Black marble, in-​scripted, stark, simple, final. Sadness rose again.
As I walked East on Third st, I stopped at the Buddhist Temple there. With my knuckles, I rapped the bell in front. May all hearers awaken, and find their true home.

I’ve gone here a couple times. Has nice seating and many different films, show and etc.

Technically called «The George and Sakaye Japan America Theatre», most people refer to beautiful 800 seat+ performing arts venue as «the JAT». Located smack in the middle of a brick plaza bounded by Second Street and San Pedro (designed, I think, by I.M. Pei), it’s one of those places you’d never see UNLESS you were going to a show there. And you can see almost anything there. I’ve seen shows ranging from community theatre (though at 800 seats, that’s community theatre writ LARGE), I’ve seen films, dance, and music.
Last night, I went with my centenarian Grandma to see the Asian American Symphony, conducted by David Benoit, and the great jazz pianist, Keiko Matsui. The Symphony played a great program of Ravel and Aaron Copeland, and Keiko Matsui played some of her old standards, plus a couple of new pieces (she reminds me a little bit of a more melodic Keith Jarrett), but the fireworks really started when she played some of her pieces with the Asian American Symphony. Jazz fusion and a brilliant pianist, combined with her own five piece band, and a 70 piece orchestra? AWESOME.
The crowd was on their feet (no small feat, considering a portion of the audience was octo and nonagenarians, and up, as well as hearing impaired and deaf — more on that in a moment) and she did two encores.
OK, so what were deaf and hearing impaired folks doing at a concert?
Pioneer has develped something they call «the body sonic» and it’s for the hearing impaired: It’s a seat cushion, combined with a round, sort of velveteen-​covered ball, combined with either standard headphones, the large kind that sound engineers wear, or a loop, to be worn around the neck. The sound goes into a massive mixing board, which is wired to all the equipped seats, and basically, the deaf and hearing impaired «feel» the vibrations.” My Grandma was one of the testers, so sitting next to her, my right buttock really got the vibrations from the low end of the sound spectrum. Oddly, it took me a while to realize that that’s what was happening — I just thought the acoustics in the building were the best I’d ever heard. At one point, my Grandma started to doze, so I took the velvet ball from her, just to see what it felt like. It felt like a musically controlled orgasmatron, which was weird, intense, but kind of cool. She woke up and took it back. Apparently, all of this was on loan, directly from Tokyo — still in its development stage. Amazing, though. As was the concert. As is the venue. One star off, because it only has two bathrooms, each located on the extreme ends of the building, one star off because there is no center aisle, meaning if you’re in the middle of the row, you have to step on about twenty pairs of feet, minimum, but one star added back on because the place is run by Johnny Mori, the great taiko drummer from the jazz fusion band, Hiroshima.