50 Hawaii Icons: Japanese Tourists

Honolulu was the first stop in Japan Air Lines’ first commercial international flight from Japan to San Francisco, in 1954. JAL’s plane, the Douglas DC-6B, held 102 passengers and allowed one-stop transcontinental service in 10 hours. Airlines appreciated the more powerful engines, larger capacity and operational efficiencies (read: more profits), while customers appreciated the quiet engine, smooth ride and general comfort. Still, it would take another 17 years before Japanese tourism would approach economic significance in Hawaii.

More than 30 years ago, Hawaii Business reported that – at 230,000 1971 projections for Japanese tourist arrivals represented a 400 percent increase from the year before. That year, widespread acceptance of jet travel dovetailed with the then- Japanesegovernment-owned airline’s decision to slash round-trip fares to Hawaii in half. At the same time, the Japanese yen gained strength over the dollar, and the Japanese government allowed citizens to carry more than the equivalent of $100 in yen outside the country and introduced foreign investment incentives to reduce Japan’s heavy dollar surplus. Another reason Hawaii had become popular was what Hawaii Business called “the welloiled industry of Japanese operators,” which brought tourists to Hawaii through tour packages pre-sold in Japan. That groundwork established the Japanese market as a mainstay in Hawaii tourism: today, Japanese tourists comprise about 20 percent of Hawaii’s tourism market. In the 1970s, local merchants complained that the regimented tour packages limited their exposure to Japanese shoppers. Today, Japanese tourists outspend their Mainland counterparts by about 60 percent per person, per day. Copyright Hawaii Business Publishing Corp. Jun 01, 2005