This article is an inquiry into the nature and role of the ethnic place-remaking process, with an emphasis on ethnic representation analysis, taking as an example San Jose's Japantown （San Jose Nihonmachi）, a Japanese urban ethnic enclave, California. The author describes the major symbolic objects in the Japantown area, investigates the processes through which the symbols were created, and interprets their textual meanings. Furthermore, he examines the social and cultural context through which these symbolization activities have proceeded, considering the nature of symbolization, and discusses the role and function of ethnic place-remaking for this ethnic urban place.<br> San Jose's Japantown now has a number of ethnic landmarks or symbols. These symbols were created through two major stages of revitalization projects:the stage from the end of the 1980s to the early 1990s, and that from 2005 to 2008. The former is a part of the revitalization projects of the City of San Jose, and the latter is the so-called “San Jose Japantown Landmark Project” triggered by the Senate Bill 307 which aims to preserve the three existing Japantowns in California. The landmarks founded in the former stage include four “Japantown History Explanation Boards,” “the Nihonmachi Gate Poles,” “the Nihonmachi Logo Marks,” and a lot of banners. Those in the latter stage include “the Civil Liberties Monument,” five “Ikoi no Ba （peaceful places to stop）,” seventeen “Historic Markers （actually granite benches）,” “The Issei （first generation） Stone （a heavy granite rock shipped from Japan）,” “The Nikkei （Japanese descent） Lantern,” and “The Issei Voices （a 36-feet long granite monument with various texts inscribed on it）”. <br> It is needless to say that the above-mentioned landmarks as a whole represent the presence and identity of Japantown itself, in other words contribute to the remake of an ethnic place. Furthermore, their detailed text expressions stand for the history of Japanese Americans in San Jose Japantown, Santa Clara Valley, and the West Coast of the United States. They also reveal the various values of Issei pioneers as well as the contributions of other ethnic groups to this Japantown. The distribution of symbols, particularly banners, also contributes to the delimitation of the Japantown area, while a cluster of landmarks concentrated in the intersection of Fifth and Jackson Streets show its geographical center.<br> The symbolization processes in San Jose Japantown have been promoted principally by the initiatives of an ethnic community of Japanese Americans who had undergone unique historical experiences, including the legal discrimination in prewar days, the wartime internment, and postwar resettlement. The social context in postwar days for Japanese Americans in the San Jose area, however, has been relatively tranquil, and the landmark projects have been implemented in a collaboration between the community and the Redevelopment Agency of San Jose.<br>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)