JBA Structure

Japantown San Jose is a Business Improvement District (BID). This means that commercial property owners and businesses are assessed a pre-determined fee when they move in. In order to have become a BID, Japantown businesses and property owners created the district boundaries and reformatted the Japantown Business Association (JBA) as a non-profit 501c6 organization with a Board of Directors to manage the funds. It took a majority of these businesses and property owners to vote to establish the BID and the BID is renewed annually by vote of San Jose City Council after a review of the work and budget of the district.

Japantown BID was formed in 1987 and has not raised fees. All work of the JBA (Farmers Market, street cleaning, banner poles, banners, liaison between non-profits, other Japantown organizations, government, neighborhood and other interested businesses and organizations and efforts; website, brochures, marketing, permits, events, office rent, salary and more) are paid for by this assessment reimbursement.