STAR-BULLETIN / 2001 Runners get water at an aid station along Kalakaua Avenue during the 2001 Honolulu Marathon.

Japan entries for
Honolulu Marathon
highest in years

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Star-Bulletin staff

Registration for the upcoming 30th Honolulu Marathon is holding strong, and Japanese entries are on pace to reach levels not seen in five or six years, despite this year's drop in Japanese tourism to the isles.

"It clearly is running counter to an overall trend," Jim Barahal, president of the Honolulu Marathon Association.

Total marathon entries had reached 28,112 as of Tuesday. That means registration has already exceeded levels from the past four years, even though there are more than three weeks left to register for the Dec. 8 race. Typically, 8 percent of entries come the week before the race, Barahal said.

Entries from Japan reached 16,168 as of Tuesday, more than double last year's 6,194, Barahal said. He expects Japanese registrations could reach 18,000 this year, marking a significant rebound, though the final tally will depend on available flights and hotel rooms.

The marathon, one of the world's largest, had its first Japanese entrant in 1976, and the number grew astronomically in the next two decades to hit a peak of 21,717 Japanese entrants in 1995. In that year, total marathon entrants peaked at 34,434.

Since 1998, Japanese registrations have fallen below 18,000, and entries last year hit a 10-year low of 9,159, thanks to Sept. 11.

This year's recovery is credited to pent-up demand from last year, as well as long-term efforts to broaden the Japanese market, Barahal said. The marathon is targeting Hokkaido island and Fukuoka for entrants, in addition to the traditional markets of Tokyo and Osaka.

Overall Japanese arrivals to Oahu are down 16.8 percent year-over-year through September, state figures show.

"It's a big sport and it's a dream of a lot of Japanese people to run a marathon at least once in their life," Barahal said. He noted that the race-day walk so far has 3,590 Japanese entrants, compared with 548 last year.

Japanese entries helped to augment this year's overall marathon registrations, though the mainland market has been helped by strong showings from charity groups, including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Arthritis Foundation, Barahal said.