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RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Mike Harken shows the back yard of his rented Kalanipuu Street home, where he has lived for four years and improved with grass and a hedge.

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Kawamoto to evict tenants
from 27 isle units
a month after holidays

Residents of about two dozen Oahu rental properties have received a Christmas greeting that they'd like to forget from Japanese real estate investor Gensiro Kawamoto.

Kawamoto, who said he owns about 100 residential properties in Hawaii, sent notices to the tenants of 27 of those units earlier this week ordering them to vacate the premises by late January.

He has been criticized in the past for allowing some of his Hawaii holdings to fall into disrepair, but Kawamoto said yesterday that he plans to take the 27 properties off the rental market, renovate them and eventually sell them as part of a planned reshuffling of his local investments.

Visiting Hawaii this week, Kawamoto also complained that the local media has consistently portrayed him as an insensitive billionaire.

"I'm not just some rich guy from Japan. I'm a serious investor," he said through an interpreter.

But he is unlikely to find much sympathy from residents of the 27 homes, who say the way Kawamoto and his local property management company have handled the matter has left their heads spinning.

Some of those ordered to move out had just received notice of a 10 percent rent increase from property management company Map Vision. The increase took effect Dec. 1.

Mike Harken, who rents a Kawamoto-owned Hawaii Kai house on a month-to-month term, had hoped the rental increase might allow him to stay in the home.

"I thought if they increase the rent, maybe I'd be safe and I could stay here for a while," said Harken, who wanted some stability on the home front until 2007, when his two boys will have graduated from nearby Kaiser High School.

Bob Swallow, another Hawaii Kai resident, said he has been in touch with at least six people who have received the notices and is seeking more disaffected renters with the intention of possibly filing a class-action lawsuit against Kawamoto.

"He has the right to sell those homes -- they're his -- but the way he's handled it has been disturbing and caused undue stress," Swallow said.

The notices to vacate give month-to-month tenants 45 days to move out, as required under state law.

Kawamoto, who made his fortune in Japanese real estate, first made local headlines in the 1980s when he casually bought 170 Hawaii properties, including many East Oahu and Kailua homes at inflated prices, sometimes without setting foot inside them.

But more recently, his attempts at selling have gained more attention. In 2002 he announced he would sell half of his holdings here, but ran into problems because of the advanced state of disrepair of some of the houses.

He also announced he would sell 642 homes in California, giving tenants just 30 days to move out. The resulting public outcry forced him to extend that period to 90 days. Many of those homes also were in disrepair.

Kawamoto has blamed his property managers and attorneys for his recent bad press and did so yesterday as well.

Many of his homes in the Hawaii Kai area were being rented out for as low as $1,500 per month, but Kawamoto said Map Vision was "lazy" and failed to keep them in proper shape.

Kawamoto said he would take a more hands-on approach to his Hawaii investments from now on.

Though the rent increases were announced to tenants by Map Vision, the notices to vacate the 27 homes were sent directly to tenants by Kawamoto.

Map Vision President Kenji Iwasa declined comment.

Kawamoto said he was eager to burnish his local image and promised to reach out more to the public. He said that any profits from the sale of the 27 properties would remain in Hawaii and that he planned to invest tens of millions of dollars of his own money in the state, though the nature of those investments would remain "top secret" for now.

Harken admitted that he and other Kawamoto tenants probably have little legal recourse to stop being tossed out of their homes, and he is managing to find some humor in the situation, particularly in the date that the notice from the Japanese billionaire was received: Dec. 7.