Little Tokyo Breakfast Club

Ryan Lee is the Director of Terasaki Budokan, and joined Little Tokyo Service Center in 2019 to prepare for the facility’s long awaited opening in 2020. He now leads the Budokan team, and oversees programs, events, rentals, communications, partnerships, and day-to-day operations.

Prior, Ryan was a Program Manager for a nonprofit, Pathways in Education, where he worked with at-risk youth and inner-city high school students. He specialized in experiential learning trips, college readiness curriculum, and internship programs. This is where he discovered his passion for working with marginalized communities.

In 2014, Ryan co-founded his own nonprofit called ‘Basketball For All’, to lead sports programs for special-needs youth. He also coached basketball at his alma mater, South Pasadena High School, and led the entire boys program from 2017-2019. He continued his coaching career as a Yonsei 24 and Yonsei 26 boys team coach, travelling to various cities throughout Japan to compete in goodwill games. He served on the Yonsei Basketball Association board from 2022-2025, and is current board chair of Little Tokyo Community Council.

Ryan received his bachelor’s degree in Communications from UC San Diego. He lives in Highland Park, Los Angeles, with his wife, Courtney, and their two children Torey (3) and Des (8mo).

Steve Nagano is a Little Tokyo resident, and has been involved with a number of community organizations and events. As a filmmaker he has shown his film shorts annually in the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and various community organizations. Since 2011 he has been a board member of the Neighborhood Council. He has done extensive work on the preservation of the testimonies of incarcerees before the Commission WRIC (CWRIC). He has been a key organizer of the Little Tokyo Sparkle, the community-wide cleanup. 

Jane Matsumoto is the former Executive Culinary Arts Director at JACCC, retiring in late 2024. Jane has worked for more than 25 years in public service. She played a key role in major projects like implementing the TAP smart card system for public transportation, but her true passion lies in the culinary arts.

Jane is deeply inspired by the history, science, and preparation of global cuisines—especially Washoku, the traditional food of Japan. Outside the kitchen, she’s often exploring food blogs, diving into cookbooks, traveling, or hiking local trails.

Born and raised in Southern California, Gary Matsumoto returned to the area in 2022 after spending almost thirty years in Hawaii. A graduate of the University of Southern California and the Kapiolani Community College Culinary Arts program, his experience in food and beverage runs the gamut of the industry. Training and progressing in the kitchen at Alan Wong’s Honolulu, he has also served as a Chef de Cuisine, Executive Chef, General Manager, Food & Beverage Director, and consultant, across a spectrum of different properties.

@gmatsumoto512