The post-pandemic return of Japanese tourists to Hawaii has been steady, but slow — an ongoing concern since these visitors have long been valued as mindful and respectful, and their spending notably helps to float the state’s economic boat. So every stride toward encouraging them back is very welcome — such as the recent full expansion of the Global Entry process at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport for Japanese citizens.

This is a trusted-traveler program available to foreign citizens and U.S. citizens that, for a fee, reduces screening and expedites processing at the arrival airport for pre-approved, low-risk travelers. Last week’s full expansion of the Japanese-to-Honolulu Global Entry program builds on a pilot one that had capped the number of Japanese applicants to 1,500.

Travelers are pre-approved in their home country after undergoing a rigorous background check and in-person interview. Upon landing at the destination airport, Global Entry members proceed to lanes where photo and other technologies expedite the Customs process.

This reduces airport wait times for global visitors, in hopes of encouraging more travel to Hawaii via a smoother, more-convenient experience, for leisure and business travelers alike.

In the works for more than year, removing the Global Entry numbers cap for Japanese visitors is promising. But other efforts that are underway, or should be, hold more potential to widen the Japan-Hawaii travel pipeline.

Vigorous pursuit of “preclearance” between Hawaii and partner airports such as Narita Airport and Haneda Airport must continue — a process administered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that allows travelers to undergo customs and immigration inspections at their departure airport, rather than upon arrival in the U.S. It’s a system successfully implemented in 15 different locations across six partner countries, streamlining the travel process and reducing wait times.

Preclearance with Japan airports has been discussed for many years, but issues over costs, siting, implementation and other logistics — such as enforcement and staffing — need to be resolved.

Still, Gov. Josh Green was rightly bullish on working with the federal government and Hawaii’s congressional delegation to negotiate with Japan’s government on streamlining the Customs process. In an interview last December with The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, he said: “I envision a corridor between Japan and Hawaii that is much simpler where people can get their preclearance and then come for several years on that preclearance,” expressing hopes for such a system in Japan by early 2025.

Before COVID, Japanese visitors in 2019 spent $1.9 billion here; in the first 10 months of this year, spending was at $874 million. Prepandemic, Japan consistently sent the most international tourists to Hawaii — nearly 1.6 million annually. Today, sluggish recovery persists: October saw fewer than 67,000 Japanese visitors, an improvement from the previous year, but still less than half of prepandemic times.

Even as Customs efforts move apace, though, there’s much the state can, and should, be going now to improve travelers’ experiences. Honolulu’s airport, for one, sadly ranks very low among the nation’s large airports: It was fourth-worst in this year’s J.D. Power North America Airport Satisfaction Study (previous years ranked it second-worst). Feedback metrics included ease of travel through the airport, terminal facilities, staffing and arrival/from airport experience.

Reacting to that study, state Transportation Director Ed Sniffen noted in a salient comment that the airport is now prioritizing cleaning, after the chairman of Japan’s Haneda Airport, on a visit to Honolulu, said his first impression of Honolulu’s airport was that it was “dirty.”

So many hurdles, large and small, remain for visitor recovery, especially from places like Japan accustomed to a high standard of cleanliness and efficiency in their hometown airports. Hawaii must continue raising the bar, and keep it high, across myriad aspects of the tourism experience. And it all starts, and ends, at the airport.