Polynesian Voyaging Society chairman Nainoa Thompson said the more than 5,000-mile trip has been in discussion for several years, but details are still preliminary.

A tentative plan would have the canoe leave Hawai'i in February 2006 on a sail with many stops and many crew changes, ending in Hokkaido, Japan, in July of that year.

The Hawai'i Tourism Authority today approved $200,000 to assist the project in fiscal year 2005. The funding for the project is part of a $1.24 million budget for sports, cultural and other proposals. HTA documents suggest Hokule'a's Japan voyage could cost $1 million over three years, although the HTA is committing only to $200,000 of a $300,000 budget for fiscal year 2005.

Two major goals are to visit the island of Satawal in Micronesia to honor navigator Mau Piailug, and to visit the villages of early Japanese immigrants to Hawai'i to honor Japan's role in Hawaiian history, Thompson said.

Eric Martinson, of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i and chairman of the joint PVS-JCC committee on the Japan trip, said another goal would be to mark the 125th anniversary of the meeting between Hawaiian King David Kalakaua and Japan's Emperor Meiji during Kalakaua's historic world tour.

Documents provided to the HTA suggest visits to Hawai'i's sister states in Japan. A tentative route calls for visits to Okinawa, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Ehime, Ise, Kamakura, Yokohama, Tokyo and Hokkaido.

But Martinson warned that "it would be premature to get too heavy into a description of the project."

Thompson said the initial legs of the voyage would take the canoe westward through the Marshall Islands into the Federated States of Micronesia, to Piailug's isolated island of Satawal.

Piailug, a Micronesian non-instrument navigator, taught traditional navigation to Thompson and other Hawaiian sailors in the early years of the Voyaging Society, after they were unable to find any living Polynesian who could teach them the ancient art of wayfinding.

Now, with its mission of exploring the outer reaches of Polynesia behind it, the canoe needs to sail to Piailug's home island as a gesture "to honor him for the gift of navigation, and to honor his whole culture," Thompson said.

Last month, Hokule'a completed a 2,500-mile trip through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and later this year will sail its 100,000th mile. He said the canoe has a new mission of education and environmental awareness, but he also hopes the vessel can promote peaceful interaction between cultures.

Cementing the connection with the Micronesian culture for its role in restoring Hawaiian voyaging traditions is a part of that, and the Japan trip is another part, he said.

From Satawal, the canoe would turn northeast to Okinawa.

"The Japan trip is about building peaceful bridges with other global cultures that have deep historic traditions in seafaring. It is to honor other cultures," Thompson said.

"Many Japanese immigrants were taken into Hawaiian families when they arrived, and many remained here. They were people in poverty who were taken care of by people who were also in poverty. We want to better understand those relationships," he said.