The September 11th attack
Hawai'i tourism mission gets ample press in Japan
By David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer
TOKYO — Hawai'i's mission to Japan got some high-visibility coverage yesterday as it pitched its message of safety and aloha to terrorist-wary travelers, but it remains to be seen whether it can also capture an audience affected by its own harsh economic realities.
Associated Press
More than 80 journalists converged on the first official press conference of the group's visit to hear Gov. Ben Cayetano, former Govs. George Ariyoshi and John Waihe'e III, and retired sumo grand champion Chad Rowan of Waimanalo and sumo mentor Jesse Kuhaulua of Maui welcome Japanese tourists to the Islands.
Retired sumo grand champion Akebono urges the Japanese to visit Hawai'i. He is joined, from left, by former Gov. George Ariyoshi, Gov. Ben Cayetano and former Gov. John Waihe'e at a news conference yesterday in Tokyo to help promote tourism.
"We think it's big news," said TV Tokyo reporter Akiko Kadota, whose station planned to broadcast a 10-minute special on Hawai'i.
Crews from 10 television stations, reporters from all the major daily newspapers, and writers for everything from guidebook publishers to water-sports magazines covered the message by the group, which has been meeting with travel agents and others in Japan in an effort to lure Japanese visitors back to the Islands.
The coverage was welcomed by the Hawai'i delegation, trying to draw Japanese tourists back to Hawai'i to help the state's struggling tourism industry and economy. Japanese arrivals in Hawai'i have been cut in half since the Sept. 11 U.S. terrorist attacks, robbing the state of about $4 million a day in spending.
But the message that Hawai'i is waiting with open arms will have little impact on some Japanese residents, such as Koji Yamada, who are struggling with an economy almost certainly in recession.
Yamada, a 31-year-old insurance company employee from Mie prefecture, said he visited Hawai'i five years ago on his honeymoon. Now, however, he has no plans to return because his company is struggling and he has "zero" vacation days.
"I'm busy with my job. I work for a Japanese company," Yamada said.
Even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Japanese arrivals in Hawai'i had been declining since they peaked at 2.2 million a year in 1997. Last year 1.8 million Japanese visited the Islands. In the week before the Sept. 11 arrivals were down about 10 percent from a year earlier.
Japan's economy contracted 0.9 percent in the second quarter of this year and unemployment is at a recent high of 5 percent. Household salaries have been falling most of the past three years.
And while the Hawai'i group's press conference attracted many journalists, it's unlikely it will be played on the front page of Japanese newspapers, said Sho Asayama, a reporter for the top business daily, the Nihon Keizai.
Front-page space will be reserved for news on the war on terrorism out of Washington, Afghanistan and elsewhere, he said.
"We thought it was strange that they began the (Hawai'i tourism) campaign on the day the bombing started," Asayama said, referring to the U.S. and British retaliatory attacks on Afghanistan.
Hawai'i's delegation also finds itself competing with Guam and Saipan, which are sending groups to Japan at about the same time, Asayama said.
"I'll wrap them all together in one story," Asayama said.
