#japan hawaii

More than 180 students from Kauaʻi, Maui, Hawaiʻi and Oʻahu will converge on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for a free half-day educational program that brings volunteer experts in traditional Japanese arts and culture to a single location. 

The Global Entry program is a US trusted traveler program available to US citizens and foreign citizens of participating countries that facilitates reduced screening and expedited processing at select major airports in the US, including at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) in Honolulu.

A new deal between the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, Meet Hawai‘i and JTB seeks to recover the pipeline of Japan business meetings in Hawai‘i.

There were 206,049 visitors to Maui in March 2024, down significantly compared to 276,485 visitors (-25.5%) in March 2023 and 271,934 visitors (-24.2%) in March 2019, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism.

Under terms of the partnership, Meet Hawai‘i will enter in a yearlong partnership with HIS Japan, targeting HIS corporate clients to promote Hawaiʻi as a premier destination for corporate meetings, conventions and incentive travel, boosting citywide and single property bookings.

Japan’s All Nippon Airways, ANA, is celebrating its 25-year legacy of facilitating connections between travelers and the destinations of Japan and Honolulu in October. Since its inaugural flight in 1998, ANA has served millions of passengers on thousands of flights along this route.

Hawaiian Airlines today announced it will restart service between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport, operating three flights Oct. 29. through Nov. 4 before restarting regular weekly service on Nov. 22. The airline will gradually return to its original three times weekly schedule in March 2024.

Fukuoka becomes the fourth destination in Japan that Hawaiian serves, joining Tokyo International Airport (Haneda), Narita International Airport, and Kansai International Airport.

The Hawaiʻi State Legislature today signed a sister-legislative relationship agreement with the Yamaguchi Prefectural Assembly of Japan.

The students, who arrived in Honolulu on Nov. 16 on Hawaiian Airlines’ flight from Osaka, are participating in a special educational excursion. As a part of their trip, students had an opportunity to learn Sustainable Development Goals highlighting the environmental threat of plastic marine litter. 

Governor-elect Josh Green and his wife Jaime Green were scheduled to depart for Japan on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, to meet with government officials and travel industry partners to promote travel and business between Hawaiʻi and Japan.  

Federal, state and county leaders joined tourism industry leaders in welcoming the resumption of travel from Japan to the island of Hawai‘i with the return of Japan Airlines’ nonstop service between Tokyo (Narita) and Kona.

Hawaiian Airlines today resumed daily nonstop service from Tokyo Haneda (HND) to Honolulu (HNL), reestablishing an important link for Japanese travelers to visit Hawai‘i.

“As our state focuses more on destination management over getting more visitors to the islands, we recognize that Japanese visitors are a priority for us because they tend to engage in the community, they’re respectful of the Hawaiian culture and of our environment. We would like to welcome them back to the islands,” said Gov. Ige.

International travel to Hawai‘i resumed on Friday with the arrival of 64 travelers from Japan on an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight from Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The visitors are the first to take part in the state’s pre-travel testing program that now includes both domestic trans-Pacific travelers and those from Japan.

Starting Friday, Nov. 6, travelers from Japan may bypass the State of Hawaiʻi’s mandatory 14-day quarantine if they take a COVID-19 test from a trusted testing partner in Japan. The test must be taken no earlier than 72 hours prior to departure and the test must be negative.

A webinar on restoring travel from Japan and featuring travel and tourism executives representing Japanese companies and organizations in Hawai‘i will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. via Zoom.

Once the list is established and the pre-travel program is launched for Japan —  travelers from that country will have the option to take the NAAT test from a trusted partner 72 hours prior to their departure for Hawai‘i.

Effective March 28 through April 29, the airline will temporarily suspend flights that operate three-times-weekly between Kona International Airport on the Island of Hawai‘i and Haneda, and four-times-weekly between Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and Haneda. At the same time, Hawaiian will launch an additional daily nonstop service between HNL and HND as announced in November of last year.

Hawaiian’s new non-stop service between Fukuoka, Japan and Honolulu could start as soon as November 2019.