Senate Confirms Director and Deputy of Labor Department

The Hawaiʻi State Senate voted to confirm Scott T. Murakami and Leonard Hoshijo as the director and deputy director of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Murakami is the departmentʻs 20th director.

Murakami joins the Ige administration from the University of Hawaiʻi, where he has held a variety of leadership positions. He most recently served as the director of Workforce Development in the Office of the Vice President for Community Colleges. Before that, he was the director of the Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training at Honolulu Community College. Murakami holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology, as well as a master’s degrees in business administration and accounting from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

“I am grateful to Gov. Ige for his trust in me to lead the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and I thank the Senate for their vote of confidence,” Murakami said. “I look forward to working alongside the men and women of the department as we work to modernize and make a positive contribution to improving the resilience of Hawaiʻi’s economy in the global marketplace and strengthen Hawaiʻi’s economic safety net.”

Hoshijo has served as both director and deputy director of the DLIR since 2015. Before joining the DLIR, he served in various roles with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Hawaiʻi Regional Council of Carpenters.