Japanese Americans in suburban Orange County, California, are widely dispersed geographically and have frequent opportunities to integrate totally into mainstream society. Nevertheless, ethnicity survives and flourishes for many. The mechanisms by which ethnicity is developed and maintained by Japanese Americans residing in predominantly white, upper-middle class suburbs appear to differ in certain ways from the mechanisms operating on Japanese Americans living in more concentrated enclaves. Ethnicity is established in the suburbs through formal organizations which provide opportunities for formal and informal socializing with Japanese Americans from a wide geographic area. Three major kinds of ethnic institutions in Orange County--the Japanese American Buddhist and Christian churches, the Japanese American athletic leagues, and the Japanese American social and service clubs--function to provide a structured, protected, and acceptable setting in which to establish the more personally satisfying informal ethnic relationships. (Author/RLV)