Takadanobaba (高田馬場) and Star Wars????
 

The director of Star Wars: The Force Awaken, J. J. Abrams has recently visited Japan for the promotion of the movie. In this movie there is a planet called Takodana and J. J. Abrams explained the origin of the name of this planet in the movie during the press conference at a hotel at Urayasu.

J. J. Abrams has visited Japan many times previously and likes Japan a lot. On his first visit to Japan he stayed at a Youth Hostel at Takadanobaba in Tokyo. Because Takadanobaba was the first place he stayed in Japan, Takadanobaba is still one of the favorite places in Japan for J. J. Abrams with found memory. During the press conference J. J. Abrams said the name of the planet Takodana came from one of his favorite place in Japan, Takadanobaba.

Takadanobaba is two stations from Shinjuku on JR Yamanote line. :)

The name "Jedi" was inspired by Kyoto's "Jidai" matsuri, apparently.

Japastiche is strong with this one.

On a somewhat related matter, I always wondered if the Ferengi honorific "Daimon" was motivated by the Oedo line subway stop of the same name. Anyone know?

But the Ferengi title is pronounced Day-mon whereas the place near Hamamatsucho is pronounced Dye-mon.

Bit of a leap but it may be the case.

The gang members with the East Asian features in the new movie are (disappointingly) called "The Kanji Club". I'm guessing there's a nod there somewhere.

Lucas's "Jedi" are likely his fantastical take on the ancient Egyptian/Hebrew guardian-priests known as the serpentine "Djedhi".

I read about the jidai / jedai thing somewhere. Can't recall where. Some of the historical figures can look very star-warsy.

Wikipedia cites the theory that Lucas took "Jedi" from "Jidai-geki." I know that Lucas was a fan of Kurosawa since his days at film school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jidaigeki

I'm going to assume you've never seen Kurosawa's "Hidden Fortress".

Lucas retold his tropes from one set of sources, and took his styles and imagery from a variety of other sets like any competent film maker.

I hope they have horses on Takodana.

Everything I know about Japan's kingdoms I learned from James Clavell. :)

I have actually seen parts of it as well as Kagemusha and Ran, and one or two of his earlier samurai band films. I've been wanting to watch this again and you reminded me.