Düsseldorf has the largest Japanese community in continental Europe — around 8,000 people — and the largest Japanese-language newspaper outside Japan. The community is concentrated around Immermannstraße near the main station, a short street that has become one of the most authentic Japanese neighbourhoods in Europe.
The street and its immediate surroundings hold a remarkable density of Japanese life: proper ramen shops (not the tourist approximations you find in most European cities), sushi bars, izakayas, Japanese supermarkets, bakeries, a Buddhist temple, and Japanese-language bookshops. The community came with the presence of major Japanese companies in the Düsseldorf region from the 1950s onward. For visitors, it offers a genuine alternative to German food and a fascinating piece of the city's quiet cosmopolitanism.