[2] As of 2012, the New York City metropolitan area was home to the largest Japanese community on the East Coast of the United States.

Japanese individuals of higher socioeconomic backgrounds did enter New York City during that period.

[2] The National Origins Act of 1924 officially barred Japanese immigration into the United States.

By the 1920s, Issei with high socioeconomic status had moved to Long Island and to New Rochelle and Scarsdale in Westchester County.

[2] By 1988 there were 50,000 Japanese businesspersons working in Greater New York City, with 77% of them being temporary employees with plans to return to Japan.

[7] About 25% of Japanese residents in the New York City metropolitan area had considered and/or decided to stay in the United States permanently.

At that time, they also served premium imported coffee and tea to New Yorkers as they didn't have many Japanese customers.

[10] In March 2011, Sam Dolnick and Kirk Semple of The New York Times wrote that the "prominent outpost of Japanese culture" in New York City was a group of sake bars and sushi restaurants in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan.

[11] In December 2014, Pete Wells of The Times heralded the new clusters of Japanese restaurants in the East Village and on the east side of Midtown Manhattan for their variety of dishes and the excellence of their food;[12] this latter neighborhood in Midtown East also houses the Japan Society and the Consulate-General of Japan in New York City, as well as Japanese cafes, markets, and corporate offices,[11] although it is not formally recognized as a Japantown.

Up to a few years before 2002, Japanese companies gave benefits to their staffs, and the annual supporting costs of a mid-level employee were about $50,000.

The companies provided cars with full-time chauffeurs for senior staff and paid for golf club membership, magazine subscriptions, tuition for schools, and housing expenses for all employees.

[7] As of 2011, within New York City itself the largest groups of Japanese residents was in Astoria, Queens and Yorkville on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

[11] In 2011, The New York Times wrote that while other ethnic groups in the New York City region clustered in specific areas, the Japanese were distributed "thinly" and "without a focal point", unlike the manner in which Manhattan's Chinatown served the city's Chinese populace.

Dolnick and Semple of The New York Times also wrote in 2011 that Japanese supermarkets such as the Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, New Jersey, the largest Japanese-oriented shopping center on the U.S. East Coast, are "the closest thing to hubs" of Japanese influence in Greater New York City.

[13] However, according to the 2009–2013 American Community Survey, the number of Japanese had increased back to approximately 5,000 in Westchester County.

Many expatriate business executives and workers are posted to the United States for three to five year terms.

[11] In 2011, Sam Dolnick and Kirk Semple of The New York Times wrote that few Japanese organizations in New York City have "broad-based constituencies" and those that exist tend to promote Japanese arts and assist elderly populations.

[2] The Japanese American Association of New York (JAA, ニューヨーク日系人会 Nyūyōku Nikkeijin Kai) is in operation.

[11] The Consulate-General of Japan in New York City is located on the 18th Floor of 299 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

[21] From 1901 to 1925, the Japanese American Commercial Weekly (日米週報 Nichi-Bei Shūhō) was published and served as the community's newspaper.

[27] In 1983, the majority of Japanese national students within Greater New York City attended U.S. schools.

[30] By 1991 Lyceum Kennedy, a French-American private school, had established a program for Japanese students.

[43] Japanese-Americans include: Japanese nationals and immigrants include: In 2011, the New American Leaders Project stated that it was not aware of any first- or second-generation Japanese immigrant in a citywide office in New York City or a statewide New York office.