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As a follow-up to my previous column on how ballot names are used by candidates to attract voters from their ethnic group, I’ll discuss how both Japanese and non-Japanese seek Japanese voters because of their presumed higher registration and voting rates.

These rates are especially significant because Hawaii has among the lowest voting rates in the nation, which continued in the 2022 general election, even with all-mail voting.

Consequently, despite being the fourth largest ethnic group (22%) in the state, Japanese voters have an outsized importance, which results in candidates targeting them in different ways, including by their ballot names and by highlighting their close ties to individual Japanese.

Ballot names are an inexpensive means for office seekers who have Japanese ancestry that may not be obvious, such as those who are ethnically or racially mixed, to make voters aware of that fact.

As a common example, Democratic state Rep. Mark Hashem, who is of mixed racial ancestry with a Japanese mother, included his Japanese middle name Jun on the ballot, probably to attract Japanese voters in Aina Haina, Niu Valley and other parts of East Honolulu he represents in District 19.

In my last column, I noted how Democratic candidate for the state House of Representatives Inam Rahman Perreira added Ikeda as his first name on the ballot, perhaps because he knows that District 35 has many Japanese residents. I subsequently learned from his Facebook page that his mother is of “Chinese, Burmese, Japanese, Filipino and Indian origin.”

Perreira ran unsuccessfully for the same office in the 2022 primary election, coming in last of the four Democratic candidates, but used Inam Rahman as his ballot name, so maybe turning Japanese (and Portuguese) is a way for him to gain more votes.

As for non-Japanese office seekers, in order to attract Japanese voters, a popular practice is to make known or to establish their social or cultural connection with individual Japanese. Those with Japanese wives have them appear in their ads or campaign publicly with them.

This strategy has been employed by several well-known elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Ed Case, former Honolulu Mayors Kirk Caldwell and Mufi Hannemann and former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou with varying results. Case includes photos with his Japanese wife in his recent campaign television ad.

Asked to comment, Case responded by email, “Folks want to know you personally. It’s local style, no different for elected officials and candidates: where you from, what schools you went, where you live, who’s your ohana and on. I share who I am, I’m proud of my family and I’ve included information on them in my official and campaign materials throughout my public service career.”  

But being married to a Japanese woman hardly seems like a compelling reason to vote for someone in comparison to their policy proposals, personal character or political experience.

In an odd twist of this electoral tactic, even after he and his Japanese wife had divorced, Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters had his former father-in-law appear with him in a campaign ad. His 2022 campaign website professed, “Tommy is honored by the love and support of James and Melvia Kawashima,” his ex-wife’s parents.

Female non-Japanese candidates who have married Japanese men can use his family name on the ballot to their political advantage, as Democratic state Sen. Lorraine Rodero Inouye, who is of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent, has done for decades. Similarly, Republican state Rep. Lauren Cheape Matsumoto, who is white, has used her marital name as her ballot name in several successful campaigns.

For those without a Japanese spouse or ex-spouse, having a Japanese person serve as one’s campaign treasurer publicly asserts a close relationship with that community, as evident in one’s campaign flyers. In addition, Japanese politicians, well-known personalities, friends and former school teachers can make personal endorsements of one’s candidacy in campaign advertising.

This tactic was used by Democrat Ikaika Anderson in seeking election as lieutenant governor in 2022 in a television ad narrated by outgoing Honolulu City Council member Ann Kobayashi. In a hardly subtle appeal to Japanese voters, she and Anderson appear in a couple of still shots wearing yukata or cotton kimono standing next to a sign in kanji characters, which a small minority of local Japanese could likely read.

One would have thought that after more than 150 years of Japanese presence in Hawaii, Japanese identity could be conveyed in less Orientalized and more local ways, such as a photo or video segment of a candidate speaking or otherwise interacting with a group of island Japanese.

Most of the strategies discussed above that are seemingly employed to attract Japanese voters are also used in targeted campaigning of them in local Japanese news media, such as , a bimonthly community newspaper which ceased publication last year. The Herald had featured campaign ads during election season by Japanese and non-Japanese office seekers since it began in 1980.

The issue published just prior to the 2022 primary election had ads by several candidates, notably all Democrats, including those of mixed Japanese ancestry and some with none. Among the latter, gubernatorial candidate Vicky Cayetano’s ad featured photos with the names of eight Japanese, including two Okinawans, appealing to readers to join them in supporting her.

Sherry Menor-McNamara, who sought the lieutenant governor’s office, highlighted in her ad her Japanese ancestry, of which the public may be unaware, by noting that she was born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother. Besides asserting that the “ganbatte (persevere) attitude” was instilled in her by her mother, the ad ends with a message in kanji characters (“Everyone, please support”), another example of self-Orientalizing.

The Herald issue published just before the general election in November had very few campaign ads, perhaps because Democratic candidates were confident of winning their races. One ad was for Republican candidates James “Duke” Aiona and Seaula Tupa‘i, running as a team for governor and lieutenant governor.

They apparently could not avoid beginning their ad with “Aloha & Konnichiwa!” and closing with “Arigatogozaimashita!” as though Hawaii Japanese regularly use these expressions, which demonstrated their lack of cultural knowledge of that community.

As an alternative, Aiona, whose mother was an immigrant from China, could have appealed for support from the Chinese community, many of whom vote Republican, but I don’t recall seeing any such campaign ads.

It is not altogether clear how effective tactics to attract Japanese voters are because some candidates who engage in them get elected, while others fail. Other more consequential factors, such as incumbency, campaign funding, name recognition and running as a Democrat, contribute to electoral success much more than having a Japanese wife, friend or middle name.

What is evident is that the Japanese vote is sought by non-Japanese candidates to a much greater extent than that of any other ethnic group in Hawaii.