Gov. Josh Green and the consul general of Japan in Honolulu, Yoshinori Kodama, have signed an action plan to bring more Japanese visitors to Hawaii to enhance economic benefits and spark more people-to- people exchanges through an expanded VIP entry program, which now includes school groups, and promotion of other programs that ease entry such as the mobile passport control program and a global entry program.

The signing took place Monday during a New Year’s reception for the Japan-­America Society of Hawaii at Washington Place, the official residence of Green and first lady Jaime Green.

Green said the event built on the inaugural Hawaii-­Japan Sister State and Sister City Summit, which was held in July 2023 and drew hundreds of senior government officials and business and civic leaders with the aim of revitalizing sister relationships in the wake of the pandemic to create new initiatives to boost trade, direct investment and improve collaboration between Japan and Hawaii. He said another summit is planned for Honolulu in 2026.

“This is one of the many ideas that came out of our previous summit, and what this spells out is a way for us to have a seamless passage or travel between our dearest friends and allies,” Green said. “As we have had 49 years with JASH, we also hope to have practical success stories like this one, and it’s not lost on me that we would definitely have not been able to do this without all of your encouragement.”

Kodama called the signing historic and said the action plan is the first signed between the Office of the Hono­lulu Consulate General of Japan and a Hawaii governor. He said it represented solidarity and was “also in line with Japan-U.S. friendship and cooperation, which was labeled last Friday as a ‘new golden age’ by the two leaders. The two leaders agreed on the importance of Japan-U.S. cooperation and also friendship as a key cornerstone in this region and for international diplomacy.”

Kodama was referring to Friday’s meeting between Prime Minister Ishiba Shi­geru and President Donald Trump, who sat down for the first time to discuss the U.S.-Japanese alliance. A joint statement issued after that meeting outlined a U.S.- Japanese economic agenda that committed to “significantly increase bilateral investment and employment.”

The push to enhance tourism and foster shared economic growth between Japan and Hawaii comes as visitors from Japan, historically Hawaii’s top international market, have continued to lag the tourism recovery. The softness is mostly due to higher trip costs from an unfavorable exchange rate, fuel surcharges and inflation.

Visitors from Japan to Hawaii increased 22.3% year over year to 720,488 visitors in 2024, according to the most recent visitor statistics available from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

However, arrivals were still 54.3% lower than in 2019. Visitors from Japan spent $1.07 billion in 2024, up 14.8% from 2023; however, that was still down 52.5% from 2019.

The full recovery of visitor arrivals from Japan continues to fall short, and some projections from economists have said it could be 2026 or even 2027 before the Japan market is restored to its 2019 level of more than 1.5 million visitor arrivals.

Eric Takahata, managing director for Hawaii Tourism Japan, a global marketing contractor for the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, said tourism officials are projecting that Japan will return to 1 million visitors this year.

Takahata said expanding the VIP entry program to students is new and immediately should help bolster the Honolulu Festival, which returns March 7-9 and is known for attracting lots of student travelers, “who are our repeat travelers of the future.”

He said Golden Week, the traditional high-volume travel period from April 29 to May 5, isn’t likely to set records because of peak pricing. Still, he said, “the expectation is that demand is building as we head into summer, and officials are optimistic that the exchange rate is finally going to start tilting toward a better balance.”

Takahata said barriers to entry for Japanese visitors to Hawaii improved in 2024 with the launch of Custom and Border Protection’s Mobile Passport Control program and the removal of a cap from the Global Entry Program, which already had existed as a pilot. However, he said, increasing awareness of these programs for Japanese travelers will be important to expanding their success.

“These programs have been in place, but this new agreement is a way to show that the Japanese government and the Hawaii government are acknowledging them and want the Japanese public to know that they are available to them,” he said.

Green said he continues to pursue pre-clearance status, which would allow Japanese visitors to undergo immigration and customs screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at participating airports in Japan before flying to Hawaii and other U.S. destinations.