At least one person I meet each week is planning a Japan getaway, a trend fueled by the weak yen Japan travel dynamic. The currency slid to a four-decade low near 162 to the dollar in early July, making long-dreamed trips suddenly attainable for many Hawaiʻi families.
Across the Pacific, a different reality has taken hold. For decades, Japanese visitors treated Hawaiʻi as an annual tradition. Now the same exchange-rate swing that opens Japan to Hawaiʻi residents is closing Hawaiʻi to many Japanese travelers. What becomes of that ritual when airfare and hotel bills no longer pencil out?
How the weak yen Japan travel dynamic is reshaping Hawaiʻi ties
Currency math explains the shift. By 2025 the U.S. dollar was 37.7% stronger against the yen than in 2016, effectively redrawing who can afford to cross the Pacific, and in which direction.
This is not a story of statewide tourism weakness. Visitor spending in Hawaiʻi reached a record $21.75 billion in 2025, according to state figures. The challenge is specific to Japan. Japanese visitor spending totaled $2.19 billion in 2019, before the pandemic and before the yen’s steep slide.
By 2025 that spending had dropped to $1.08 billion. Arrivals tell the same tale. In July 2025, the number of visitors from Japan was down nearly 59% from July 2019, one of the widest gaps among major markets, even as arrivals from the U.S. mainland largely returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The currency shift shows up in trade as well. Over the past decade, Japan has been Hawaiʻi’s second-largest export destination, averaging $91.9 million a year. Exports such as refined petroleum, apparel, bottled water, and coffee reflect long-standing economic ties. A weaker yen makes Hawaiʻi goods pricier for Japanese buyers while making Japanese products cheaper for Hawaiʻi buyers, which may help explain why trade has held up better than tourism.
The question is not whether Hawaiʻi and Japan remain connected. It is how that connection works today for the Japanese family that once spent every August or December in the Islands but cannot this year.
Are local companies finding ways to bring the Islands to them instead?
Contributing writer Rachel Wagenman spent time with Hawaiʻi brands heading to Japan rather than waiting for visitors to return.
One example from her reporting: Nina Thai, who runs the Waikīkī label Angels by the Sea Hawaii, noticed years ago how many customers came from Japan. So she started going there, securing a spot at the Tokyo International Gift Show and becoming a regular at Osaka’s Hankyu Hawaiʻi Fair.
As Wagenman reports, Japanese shoppers are not just buying resort wear. They are buying a connection to the Islands. Read her full piece for more from Thai and other local business owners.
The irony is that the same weak yen keeping families out of Waikīkī this summer makes it cheaper for Hawaiʻi brands to reach them in Japan. A plane ticket to Honolulu is harder to justify. A pop-up booth in Osaka is not. For now, that is where the relationship is thriving.
Wahine of the Year
Hawaii Business Magazine has named Catherine Ngo its first Wahine of the Year. She will be honored at the Wahine Forum in October.
Ngo has spent more than a decade shaping Hawaiʻi’s financial sector and philanthropic community. She joined Central Pacific Bank in 2010 as executive vice president and chief administrative officer, becoming the bank’s first female president and CEO in 2015, a position she held until 2022.
She later served as executive vice chair, then chair of Central Pacific Financial Corp. and Central Pacific Bank from January 2023 to June 2024, helping steer recovery and growth while advancing initiatives that support local small businesses.
Before moving to Hawaiʻi, Ngo built her career in Silicon Valley as executive vice president and general counsel of Silicon Valley Bank, and co-founded Startup Capital Ventures, an early-stage venture firm investing in Hawaiʻi, Silicon Valley, and China.
In October 2025, Ngo stepped down from the CPB and CPF boards. Her community work continues. She remains president and chair of the Central Pacific Bank Foundation, directing millions in grants for housing, small business support, and programs like WE by CPB Rising Tide, which mentors women entrepreneurs. She also serves on the boards of Hawaiʻi Gas, Maui Land & Pineapple Co., and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
We hope to see you at the fall event.
Jennifer Ablan, Editor-in-Chief
