Japanese visitors to Hawaii express their satisfaction about their Hawaii trip most plainly not through words of praise or complaint, at least not within earshot. It’s the return trip: If there is none, that will tell the visitor industry it’s not measuring up to the challenge of serving one of its core tourism markets.

Increasingly, Hawaii has to compete with other destinations to draw the travelers from Japan, where those with the means to vacation are becoming increasingly discerning of their options. And the state can’t afford to take any Hawaii preference for granted.

Hawaii has been slipping since the market peaked in 1997, dropping from 2.2 million Japanese visitors that year to 1.5 million in 2013, and, based on industry feedback, dissatisfaction with customer service seems to be at the heart of the problem.

Rightly, the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations has determined it has a role to play in workforce development and is subsidizing the cost of customer-service training for those who encounter visitors in their daily work routines.

Its latest initiative is to provide a $112,000 grant — the Hawaii Tourism Authority has added donations, too — for a training program sponsored by the Japan Hawaii Travel Association. The course series, set to begin Aug. 21 and touch down in each county, was developed by The LearningBiz Group and is aimed at improving understanding of the Japanese visitor, said Gregg Yamanaka, company president.

Those in Hawaii’s industry need to understand that Japanese visitors have high expectations of customer service because in their home culture the assumption is their needs will be provided without their having to ask for every little thing. Timeliness is assumed; cleanliness is a minimal expectation, as is simple awareness of problems the guest may be having.

"The concept is called ‘omotenashi,’ meaning to anticipate the other person’s needs," Yamanaka said. "It’s the responsibility to understand the needs. Culturally, it’s rude to ask.

"We’re not going to have everybody completely changing to be like the Japanese," he added, "but if they can become more aware of it, then at least the tolerance will be better. Even though (the visitors) are quiet and not asking, they really are asking."

He noted that 700 complaints were logged by a single tour wholesaler in 11 months, and that has to signify the "tip of the iceberg" of dissatisfaction that’s really out there.

Of course, this single training series has to be part of a continuing process, industrywide. It’s appropriate that some of the costs for unionized workers enrolled in the course will be covered with money from the Hotel and Restaurant Industry Employment & Training Trust Fund, which gets revenue from Unite Here Local 5 as well as the hotels.

For its part, the union must support more broadly service-oriented job descriptions for workers; everyone in the industry should consider themselves on the front lines of visitor outreach, rather than being strictly task-oriented.

And creating and reinforcing a team consciousness — ensuring adequate payment for their employees, too — is the ongoing responsibility of the employers.

However, given the warning signs flashing within the Japanese visitor sector, the state should help to jumpstart what must be an improvement in customer service in Hawaii’s principal economic engine.

Although the Japanese visitors are the ones raising the bar for the service providers, every visitor to the islands will benefit from a more sensitive, intuitive tourism workforce. Strengthening Hawaii’s brand should always be the goal.