so takeda has decided to try koreatown in los angeles. at a local supermarket he was reassured to find sea squirts on display. and the restaurant he visited was serving sea squirts. >> yeah, i like it, maybe one or two times. >> reporter: he found there's demand, but people in koreatown have concerns. >> japanese -- it's a kind of fish, i'm scared. >> reporter: takeda had planned to meet a south korean trader in l.a. but he suddenly canceled the meeting. >> transnslator: there was a series of developments such as strained japan/soututh koreaa relations and thehewto's final decision on the import ban last year. i feel those affected our effort to some extent. >> reporter: takeda found a south korean restaurant interested in sampling the sea squirts. >> it doesn't have the bitterness. >> reporter: takeda explained that he can provide a variety of processed sea squirts and that they are larger than south korean products. >> translator: i believe exporting our sea squirts is ababsolutely n necessary. i won't give injust for this trip. >> repo

. >> we're in the heart of koreatown.one of the largest korean populations outside south korea. within a few miles we have historic filipino town, chinatown, tokyo town. you're talking about the entire asian continent being represented within a few miles. >> what is the biggest misconception about the aapi community? >> we continue to be adversely impacted by the model minority myth. there are parts of our community doing well financially, but there are other parts that aren't. it's just like america. >> reporter: aapis have historically turned out to vote in low rates. that seems to be changing. in the 2018 midterms there are a 14-point jump in asian-american turnout which is encouraging for these two who are trying to turn out voters in their communities. >> how much of the administration's actions on immigration and some of the very incendiary language about people from other countries, how much of a role is that playing in motivating people to come out and vote? >> i really see there's a growing anxiety and fear among

crushing koreatown with its local businesses and motels but also those more infamous hollywood streets that are ran by gang members surgeon munoz sometimes stumbles upon some rather unusual scenes during the night. every night at around 10 pm the regular ritual of scantily clad prostitutes coming out onto the street begins to come out here and just plainly walk. wester and you can see how quickly things just get more growth yeah there's there's about 56 different girls it within about a 4 block area. the soliciting is completely uninhibited for everyone to see so you can see them monitoring traffic waving cars blowing kisses at people obviously they're dressed the way they're dress or attire it's part of that. sort of movie the surgeon notices a sex worker who appears very young. to spray everybody at. all so now she's here on the corner he's here right here because of the street we have enough on the caruthers in the area they've got to try to get her attention to see if she decides to get in on the outside. one of the plainclothes officers approaches her in his van after a short conv

s koreatown, where business owners say profits are plummeting.ne person told me restaurants no longer want to be featured in news coverage out of worries it reinforces negative stereotypes. harmful rumors means the restaurant is nevever more than half full. at this hair salon, more and more customers have been cancelling their reservations. the owner says she hasn't seen anything like this since she opened 18 years ago. >> two weeks ago, last week, higher, yeah. the worry, because there is no money. >> reporter: san francisco, concerns reachched a fever pitc. last week, the chinese community held a protest, calling on people to fight the virus, not people. i, myself, was harassed on the street. a man walking by yelled, "you japanese be careful of coronavirus." here in los angeles, not only are county officials trying to be proactive by expanding medical measures, but also warning residents of the dangers of discrimination. >>> the european union has accused turkey of exploiting migrants for political purposes. this comes amid a mounting refugee c

s koreatown say business has dropped there by about 50% after a false rumor was spread on social mediaoining us now to discuss this here in studio we've got nbc legal analyst danny cevallos good morning can we see any legal fallout from these rumors we see being spread >> yes some of these statements can be defamatory if they are false and they injury someone's reputation or they cause them money harm, money damages, something a plaintiff would have to prove. but there's a special category of def-nation. historically if you accuse someone of a crime falsely or you falsely state they have what's been traditionally called a loathsome zpaez you can tedis tell it's an old term. but society's perception of that has changed. something in one of those categories is called def-nation per se, and the larger didn't require you to prove you loved any money. you have a case. >> let's try to draw some lines and make a difference. two things the difference between a person like the daniel radcliffe thing and an institution like a business or a restaurant and if somebody is joking does that make a di

and this is impacting not just chinese americans, but asian americans across the board, and even koreatownles is being impacted. it's not just the chinese americans. so we are keeping an eye on this, and it's being quantified, but i also want to mention that since the very early days of this pandemic, one of our affiliate agencies, chinese affirmative action commissioned a study from san francisco state university to see what kind of reports of xenophobia and anti-asian harassment and violence there have been. and they documented from the early days of february to the early days of march about one month 300 cases. now this is national. i also want to say that since then is when the china virus rhetoric has started to heat up. and so this report is saying that it is seeing and expecting, you know, a significant increase in these types of incidents. and they include everything from outright violence to shunning and so forth. and keep in mind that what is being reported is just the tip of the iceberg. so the professor who oversaw the study, professor russell jung from san francisco state univ