Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi (center) visits with former Hawaii Gov. George Ariyoshi (left) and First Lady Jean Ariyoshi (right) Saturday, Nov. 10, 2011 during the International Trade Reception at Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

By Robert D. McFadden

George R. Ariyoshi, a Honolulu-born Japanese American politician who shattered voting traditions in the nation’s only state with an Asian plurality, becoming Hawaii’s — and America’s — first governor of Asian descent, died on Sunday at his home in Honolulu. He was 100.

His death was confirmed by his son, Ryozo Ariyoshi.

The son of a Japanese sumo wrestler and seaman who jumped ship in Honolulu in 1919, Mr. Ariyoshi, a tall, trim, soft-spoken Democrat with a craggy face, served a record three terms as Hawaii’s governor, from 1974 to 1986. He was known for trying to limit explosive population growth in Hawaii, the nation’s 50th state, and for diversifying an economy heavily dependent on tourism.

Mr. Ariyoshi grew up in downtown Honolulu during the Depression — far from the serene, resort-lined Waikiki beaches familiar to visitors — and in the tough western district of Kalihi, where roosters were raised for cockfights, lepers were triaged before being sent to the island of Molokai and Asian boys were sometimes bullied and learned to fight. His parents spoke little English.

Coming of age as World War II ended, Mr. Ariyoshi went to college and law school in Michigan, became a lawyer in Honolulu and in 1954 won a seat in the territorial House of Representatives. The emergence of Japanese Americans and other Asian ethnic minorities, and of labor unions, made Democrats the chief political power in Hawaii that year, after decades of white and Republican government control.

Four years later, Mr. Ariyoshi was elected to the territorial Senate, and after Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, he became the powerful Senate majority leader and a protégé of John A. Burns, the leader of Hawaii’s Democratic Party, who was elected governor in 1962. In 1970, Mr. Burns, running for a third term, chose Mr. Ariyoshi as his lieutenant governor.

To read the entire article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/us/politics/george-ariyoshi-dead.html

Photo credit: Hawaii County, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons