What’s On

ZOOM AGM CJCC 2022 POSTPONED; NEW DATE TBD

MEDIA RELEASE                                       Sunday, August 14th 2022

Safe New Parking Lot at CJCC hosts new

Canadian Japanese Summer Festival in Hamilton

Hamilton, ON – The First Canadian Japanese Summer Festival in Hamilton will be held on August 14 from 1-5 pm at CJCC.  We are looking forward to meeting everyone and enjoying our newly repaved parking lot for this outdoors festival.  With the help of a Capital stream grant from the Government of Ontario’s Community Building fund, we have a newly paved safe parking lot. The fund is administered by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

“Thanks to the grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, community members can visit the Canadian Japanese Cultural Centre without having to worry about any safety concerns from the pavement” says Monique Taylor, MPP for Hamilton Mountain, “ensuring our community has a safe and accessible space to park for events is essential, so I am glad to see this grant being put to good use.”

With this Community Building Fund grant, given over 12 months, our organization will address a community need by repaving the parking lot to maximize use of space, improve traffic flow, increase safety, accessibility and functionality for our facility.

We felt that the parking lot was unsafe for our seniors and others who come to club activities and are in danger of falling in the dark where there are cracks and uneven paving.  The new lot will drain well ensuring that there is minimal ice during the winter which will be much safer for everyone.  The newly painted lines will maximize the parking space and we foresee that the lot will ensure that the functionality of the building will last over the years to come.

Canadian Japanese Cultural Centre (CJCC) is the only Cultural Centre for Japanese Canadians in the Greater Hamilton area including the Golden Horseshoe and extending to the tip of southern Ontario.  CJCC is a registered charity which specializes in activities which are culturally significant to Japanese Canadians in the hopes that these arts and activities may be preserved for future generations. These may include activities and clubs for seniors, traditional Japanese influenced Martial Arts taught by qualified, and certified instructors, Japanese arts, Japanese Language, Japanese meditative arts, lessons and clubs. In addition to providing support and instruction for sports and recreational activities, the CJCC functions as a meeting place and office for the human rights organization, Hamilton Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians.  

CJCC was founded to preserve Japanese cultural traditions by mostly Canadian born Japanese Canadians.  They came to Hamilton after World War II as Hamilton was one of the few cities that did not cap the number of Japanese Canadians allowed to settle.  These individuals were forced to relocate east of the Rockies after losing everything. The current Hempstead location was purchased after a major fundraising drive within the community, supplemented by redress money from the federal government and financial assistance from the National Association of Japanese Canadians. The CJCC is open to anyone who supports the CJCC vision.

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) mission is to build healthy and vibrant communities across Ontario. As an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations, last year, OTF invested nearly $209M into 2,042 community projects and partnerships, which included funding for the Government of Ontario’s Community Building Fund. Since 2020, OTF has supported Ontario’s economic recovery by helping non-profit organizations rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Visit otf.ca to learn more.