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This paper examines the development of global ethnic ties, focusing on pan-American Nikkei activities among later-generation descendants of Japanese immigrants. How do diasporic ties emerge across countries, and how are ties mobilized? Who promotes, and participates in, this process? Pan-American Nikkei activities emerged neither as a by-product of shared ancestry or experience nor as a result of continuous ties to their ancestral homeland. Instead, they emerged in response to changes taking place in their countries of residence. Precisely because Japanese descendants throughout the Americas became assimilated, acculturated and economically better off, community leaders had both the means and need to mobilize diasporic ties in order to bolster their communities, and their status therein, in their respective countries. The most active participants in these activities were well-to-do community leaders. Keywords: Diaspora; Japan; ethnicities; identity; role of sending state.