Little Tokyo Breakfast Club

During his 25-year tenure at Little Tokyo Service Center, Takao Suzuki has held positions of a community organizer, project manager and real estate director, and community development director. He began his tenure at LTSC as a community organizer through the LISC AmeriCorps program, and in 2004, he joined the real estate development department, overseeing the completion of over 300 affordable housing units along with the Little Tokyo development of the California Japantowns project. He currently serves on the board of the Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, Mercado la Paloma, Inc. and is on the Affordable Housing Advisory Council of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. He served as the Los Angeles County Supervisorial District 1 appointed Housing Commissioner for the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles until May 2019, and now is a Housing Advisory Committee Member of the Los Angeles County Development Authority. In 2019, he also joined the Real Estate Advisory Committee of NeighborWorks America. He holds a B.A. in Social Work from the California State University of Los Angeles and a M.A. in Urban Planning from the University of California of Los Angeles.

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 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.