Once you attend the Nisei Showoff in Little Tokyo, you won’t miss a year since, ’cause Nisei is the place where you’ll find the best JDM show cars Southern California has to offer. You got that Little Tokyo is an ethnic Japanese American district, right? It’s situated in downtown LA and it’s one of the three official Japantowns in the U.S.

It all started back in the days when Japanese car junkies were jus’ cruising Nisei week, a cultural festival celebrating Japanese-Americans. Rapidly it became obvious that the auto show made A LOT of sense since it was generated for all the right reasons, but not for monetary gain. Even though they say that the Import Showoff event is likely to stop its existence each and every single year, the tried and true auto show gathered tons of fans this year. Again. Indeed, Nisei Showoff is about the highest standard in modified import cars. And thanks to the legendary import carshow promoter Ken Miyoshi who’s behind this event, good cars and good friends made it on the past weekend.

Downtown LA’s annual Nisei Week Festival in Little Tokyo celebrated the 17th year since it created the first auto show strictly for imports. Surprisingly enough, there were also some American classics on the ground which you’ll see among the photos below. In fact, the best paint jobs noticed there were rather on good old American lowriders, than on imports. Many of you weren’t somewhere nearby so you could not attend the event but I hope these photos tell a good story. Enjoy!

What was absolutely cool is all the Hondas that gathered together. While there was a line-up of 25 Hondas last year, it seemed to be an already big group, but this year the Import Showoff housed over 75 Hondas. Among them there was a very special build that is important to the Honda community. It belonged to Jon Tanji who unfortunately passed away in 2005, but his friend, Skinhead Mike brought the Civic to the show. It was good for everyone to see the car (in the frozen condition) after all these years. Check out Jon’s Honda first in a row as well as others below:

Nisei Auto Show is certainly all about cars, but a few import models still showed up. There were Sandra Wong, Lena Love, Ryan Osco, and Marissa Hiroko, with the latter being a Miss Showoff. That’s right! Marissa was chosen Miss Showoff and no wonder why

This vid reveals the whole atmosphere at Nisei Showoff 2102! Check it out if you weren’t in da house!

Image Credit: stickydiljoe, autoshowevents, Stance:Nation, Speedhunters, wearblackwhite, DaYUUM

Ready to show off?

Drivers of both imports and classics put much effort into making their vehicles look like cars ready to hit any auto show. Well, you will make the most beneficial modifications with the suggested accessories from CARiD. Check out!

Carbon Fiber Hood by Seibon

Borla Racing Exhausts

K&N Performance Air Intakes