Resources
This white paper presents findings from the 2025 State of the JACL Membership Survey, the organization’s first comprehensive membership assessment since 2009. Conducted October through November 2025 with 510 verified members across all seven chapter districts, this survey was designed to address six core strategic questions JACL identified going into this research: How do older and younger members differ in their priorities? Where do members draw the line between advocacy and identity-focused programming? Should JACL maintain a Japanese American-specific focus or expand to broader civil rights work? Does national mobilization across all 96 chapters make sense, or should JACL shift toward regional approaches? How does the current membership compare to the broader Japanese American population? And what does the data reveal about JACL’s role in preserving and transmitting community history and identity?
The findings offer clear answers to each of these questions, organized around four themes:
Members are more unified than divided. Racial justice and equity is the top policy priority across every age group, generation, and district — the only issue that ranks consistently first regardless of how the membership is segmented. Pan-ethnic coalition building enjoys near-universal support (90%+ across all age groups). Concerns about membership decline, loss of institutional memory, and lack of younger leadership are shared equally across all generations.
The current political moment has activated the membership. 78% of members say the U.S. immigration policy debate has worsened discrimination against AANHPI communities. 16% report personal or household vulnerability due to immigration status, a striking figure for a membership that is predominantly older, highly educated, and financially stable. Over 80% support JACL focusing on border immigration policy. Members across generations draw explicit connections between the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans and current immigration enforcement, and they expect JACL to act on those connections.
JACL’s membership does not fully reflect the broader Japanese American population. Since 2009, JACL membership has declined from 15,000 to approximately 7,000 members while the Japanese American population grew by 22%. California is significantly overrepresented in JACL membership (44% vs. 30% of the JA population), while Hawaii is dramatically underrepresented (3% vs. 20%). Multiracial and multiethnic Japanese Americans, which are now over half of the broader JA population nationally, make up just 21% of JACL’s membership, a figure that has not much changed since 2009. These gaps represent concrete opportunities for membership growth.
Programming and communications need generational recalibration. Political advocacy is the top priority across all generations, but communication and news programming — valued by 22% of members 65 and older — drops to just 6% among those 18 to 34, while cultural programming and community events grow in importance among younger and later-generation members. Youth programs draw support across all age groups, and chapter digital infrastructure warrants attention: some chapters lack websites or contact emails, creating barriers that a national audit could help address.