TOKYO >> For generations, Hawaii has been a dream destination for Japanese tourists. Tour groups catering to Japanese travelers have drawn thousands to the islands with promises of sightseeing, shopping and dining in Waikiki and relaxing at resorts.

But younger Japanese travelers are often looking for something very different from what their parents seek when they travel. In addition to the depreciation of the Japanese yen prompting them to look for cheaper destinations, younger travelers also say they seek authenticity and adventure over resort experiences that have long been the keystone to tourism marketing in Japan.

Hawaii has ranked the top desired location for Japanese travelers for 16 consecutive years. Takashi Watanabe, director of international affairs for the Japanese government office overseeing tourism, said that older Japanese — especially men over 60 — were both the most likely travelers to visit Hawaii as well as the most likely to return.

The COVID-19 pandemic gutted travel numbers. International travel by Japanese citizens began rebounding in 2023 but is still a mere fraction of pre-pandemic numbers, when 2019 saw the largest number of Japanese tourists traveling abroad in history. While Hawaii’s popularity has so far remained steady among seniors, younger Japanese in their 20s and 30s are more ambivalent about the islands.

“Hawaii, personally, it’s not on my top list to go,” said Shion Hirano, a 23-year-old Japanese student studying graphic design in Canada. “Yeah, it might be great, but I’ll have to pay a lot.”

Hirano, who has traveled to Vietnam and Finland, said she looks for lower prices and cultural experiences.

“I’m not a big hotel person,” she said, adding she’s enthusiastic about food and meeting people, noting that in Vietnam “everyone was friendly, and they were curious about us, so I liked talking to people in that country.”

Yuuki Hirake, a 21-year old studying information technology, said he lived abroad in Seattle for a year as a student and has been to Taiwan as a tourist. He said that when he travels, he wants “to experience the culture, experience something unpredictable.”

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But when Hirake and his peers think of Hawaii, “we see it as a place for the rich.”

Yoko Hayano, chief consultant with Tokyo-based JTB Tourism Research & Consulting, said the top three things Japanese people say they want to see when they travel are nature, good food and history.

“Japanese travelers are not really looking for food that is just enjoyed by travelers or tourists, they’re looking for food that locals enjoy at local places,” she said.

In particular, younger travelers want to feel immersed in the places they go. Hayano said that data shows young Japanese travelers “want to mingle with local people and then beyond just being travelers, they want to be contributors, they want to offer to local communities … , they really want to protect the environment and are interested in sustainability.”

Economic shifts have moved many Japanese travelers — who have long enjoyed trips to Europe, America and Australia — closer to home. The proliferation of low-cost air carriers serving destinations across Asia has been enthusiastically embraced by Japanese travelers. Hayano said that in recent years travel to Southeast Asia has doubled, while travel from Japan to Europe and Oceania have gradually declined.

Korea has also become an increasingly popular destination, especially for young Japanese women drawn by a mixture of Korean pop culture and Korean beauty products. For other younger travelers, riding scooters and eating street food in Southeast Asia holds more appeal than the luxury resorts and malls of Waikiki they’ve seen marketed to them about Hawaii.

“Asian destinations are closer and cheaper than other destinations, such as Western countries, including to Hawaii,” Watanabe said. “In particular, the number of travelers to East Asia and Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam, has been increasing due to less susceptibility to the weak Japanese yen and price fluctuations, and due to recovery in the number of airline flights as well.”

Hayano said that social media also has influenced what people want from their travels, namely photos and videos of their adventures to show off and share on a wider platform. And when it comes to shopping, more desirable are mementos and goods that are unique to the area and carry perceived cultural significance.

But Hayano said that while younger travelers crave authenticity, many are anxious about travel. They often go to travel agencies for help looking for where to stay and what to do in a way that Hayano said some older Japanese, who may have traveled for work and have more practice speaking English, feel more confident doing for themselves.

For instance, Hirake admitted that although his English improved after studying in Seattle, he feels self-conscious about his ability to communicate while traveling abroad.

“For young people, like our sons, they may not know the attraction of Hawaii,” Watanabe said. “We often watch Hawaii on TV programs because Japanese celebrities unchangeably like Hawaii … but the problem is the younger people don’t often watch TV. My son doesn’t watch TV anyway, he watches YouTube. How to reach younger people is a challenge.”

However, Hawaii is still finding its way into Japanese popular culture in new ways.

In the latest installment of the popular Japanese video game franchise “Like A Dragon,” the series took one of its protagonists — a Yakuza gangster — to Honolulu to reconnect with his mother, who immigrated to Hawaii and is battling cancer. The game has been well received by fans, and last month publisher Sega announced a new spinoff called “Like A Dragon: Yakuza Pirate in Hawaii,” which focuses on another character continuing their adventures in the islands.

Hiroyuki Furukawa, manager of the Hawaii section for Japanese travel agency HIS Co. Ltd., suggested expanding tourism promotion to emphasize Native Hawaiian culture and activities, the state’s broader cultural diversity and the historical connections between Hawaii and Japan, including the waves of immigration that brought workers from Japan during the plantation era.

“We haven’t really promoted enough about that aspect, but there is a connection. Still, (many Japanese) people perceive Hawaii as just a resort that they admire,” Furukawa said. “So maybe we should look at the ways that we market and project the image about Hawaii together with different operators in the industry … so that we can focus more on the cultural aspects and cultural experiences.”

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Kevin Knodell reported on this story as part of a fellowship with the Foreign Press Center Japan.