Club opens to forge friendships between Japanese and American families.

They are 6,000 miles from home, struggling to make themselves understood in a foreign language as they try to set up their homes, enroll their children in school, buy groceries and find their way around town.

The Japanese families who have flocked to the South Bay in recent years say their American hosts have been extremely kind, going out of their way to make them feel welcome. But they realized long ago that they need a place of their own to relax, share information and get to know one another.

On Tuesday, the Japanese Business Assn. staged a grand opening of the Family Club they have dreamed of for years, a place they hope will meet both their own social needs and their desire to thank the community that has welcomed them.

Its setting on the upper floor of a small industrial building on the southern edge of Gardena is misleading, because association members want the Family Club to be a place removed from the traditional pressure of business.

“We started to feel that we needed more, something closer to the community,” said association Chairman Phil Shimbori, senior vice president of Kenwood USA Corp. “We wanted a place to have classes and seminars and meeting rooms, where we could invite the community to come visit with us.”

Located in the K. Ogawa & Co. building at 1440 W. 178th St., the center is a small collection of rooms centered around a growing library of Japanese-language books. In addition to the library service, which will be available to anyone wanting to borrow books, the center plans to stage crafts classes, occasional get-acquainted sessions with prominent Japanese visitors--such as a recent gathering to meet a leading Japanese cartoonist--and cultural seminars.

“It will be a YMCA outreach kind of program, where members of the (American) community can come by to meet members of the Japanese community,” said Linda Moriwaki, a native Californian who has volunteered to help establish the Family Club. “It will also be a place where families first arriving, who don’t understand what is going on, can come for help.”

One thing the association wants to avoid is any appearance of exclusivity, she said.

“They don’t want the American public to think, ‘Oh, there go the Japanese again, all gathering in one spot,’ ” she said. “This is really a sign that everything is opening up.”

Some of the dozens of community leaders invited to join in Tuesday’s grand opening festivities said they welcome the effort.

Persuading Americans to become active at the center “will require finding a common interest of some kind,” Torrance City Councilman George Nakano said, “but you have to respect the effort that they’re making.”

Gunkatsu Kano, Japan’s deputy consul general in Los Angeles, said he believes the Family Club will help bridge the cultural gap between Japan and the United States.

“The host communities have been so generous,” he said. “It is my hope that this Family Club will build deep friendships between Japanese and Americans.”