“Japanese immigrants came to Hawaii from Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kumamoto, Okinawa and Yamaguchi prefectures after 1868. Hawaiian King David Kalakaua traveled to Japan in 1881 to visit the Meiji emperor and invited Japan to send settlers to work on Hawaii’s agricultural plantations. In 1885, Jiro Nakamura was the first Japanese consul in Hawaii, the first diplomatic representative from any nation other than the U.S., to be posted in the Kingdom of Hawaii.”
http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/local-features/about-town-5-24-14
King Kalakaua was not merely interested in the labor of Japanese immigrants. Another motivation with offsetting American influence and avoiding a U.S. takeover:
“He sought a closer relationship with Japan, in part, to offset the growing influence of the U.S., when he proposed a marriage alliance between his niece, Princess Ka`iulani, and the Emperor’s nephew, Komatsu.”
