The best advice for anyone who wants to research Japanese-American folklore: be prepared to look at sources that are not printed. Books and journal articles are surprisingly devoid of information regarding Japanese-American folklore. If I'm not mistaken, the best sources for this topic are probably interviews or cultural center archives. If that sounds like something you're willing to do, then plan in advance to speak to someone or make an appointment to browse archives at the Japanese American National Museum or the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (both in Los Angeles) or somewhere similar. If you want to keep your research confined to the library (and no one would blame you if you did), then your best bet would be to choose another topic.
Of the sources I managed to find, the best two were both journal articles. Fumi Kawamoto's "Folk Beliefs among Japanese in the Los Angeles Area" and Marvin Opler's "Japanese Folk Beliefs and Practices, Tule Lake, California" were helpful, and both can be found through the JSTOR search engine on the CSULA library website. Best of luck!
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