Okinawan sweet potatoes grown in Hawaii are useful and tasty in many ways — from haupia pie to salads to manju or just plain steamed. Shochu, a popular Japanese spirit, may soon be another.

Ken Hirata, an entrepreneur from Japan whose parents used to live in Hawaii, aims to become one of a relatively few shochu makers outside Japan and the first commercial shochu maker in Hawaii.

The 43-year-old, who left the banking industry to apprentice under a master Japanese shochu maker, is working to set up a distillery and farm on Oahu.

Kamehameha Schools is leasing Hirata 10 acres on the North Shore, while the state Department of Agriculture and Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism have committed loans of $25,000 each to help finance the roughly $400,000 endeavor.

Hirata is still working to obtain liquor permits and licenses, but recently began constructing a small distillery building and hopes to be in production by the end of next year.

"It’s going to be really great," he said. "It’s going to be a high-end product" made in Japan’s finest tradition.

Shochu is an ancient beverage that for most of its history was upstaged by sake, brewed rice wine. Unlike sake, shochu is distilled and can be made from a wide range of sources including rice, wheat, barley, fruits and vegetables. The drink is often compared to vodka for its clear appearance and neutral flavor, though shochu’s alcohol content is typically about half as much as vodka’s, or about 25 percent.

Craft distillers helped shochu sales in Japan surpass sake in 2003, according to media reports.

But shochu production in the United States has been nascent even as the drink gains recognition. San Francisco-based Smooth Spirits LLC claims to be the only U.S. producer of shochu.

Hawaii beverage industry veteran Marcus Bender sells two shochus under his Kai Vodka brand, though the rice-based flavored shochus — Kai Young Coconut Shochu and Kai Lemongrass Ginger Shochu — are imported from Vietnam.

Hirata said the permitting process has been challenging. Raising capital in a rough patch of the economy also has been tough.

The $25,000 loan from DBEDT is from a new microloan program the Legislature funded this year with $150,000. Dennis Ling, administrator of DBEDT’s strategic marketing and support division, said the program aims to foster rural community-based economic development by providing loans of up to $25,000 to agriculture-related enterprises rejected by conventional lenders.

"We are a lender of last resort," Ling said. "It’s a new concept (for DBEDT). It’s looking at more entrepreneurial, innovative enterprises."

Hirata is the first loan recipient under the program.

Hirata said his interest in shochu began as a consumer. "I just liked it," he said. Hirata also wanted to return to Hawaii, where he often visited his parents when they lived here about 20 years ago. "I really liked the lifestyle," he said. "Hawaii has been like my second home. I’ve always had a special connection with Hawaii."

A plan emerged to learn to make shochu and then produce it in Hawaii where several crops well suited for shochu production are well established, including taro, sugar cane and sweet potato.

Hirata quit a banking job in Hong Kong and apprenticed four years under a master distiller of Manzen Shuzo Co. Ltd. in Kagoshima, Japan, where imo shochu, or shochu from sweet potatoes, originated.

Kagoshima, a southern prefecture, is home to about 100 shochu distilleries and produces 830 million pounds of sweet potatoes annually, compared with about 8 million pounds produced in Hawaii, according to Hirata and state Department of Agriculture statistics.

Hirata estimates he will need 17,000 to 27,000 pounds of sweet potatoes a year, which he plans to initially purchase from farmers and then supplement with a crop grown on the 10-acre site.

Hirata anticipates hiring three to six part-time employees initially, then expanding after a few years to employ six to 10 people.

Initial annual production is projected at 5,000 to 8,000 bottles made in small batches of about 300 bottles that might retail for $30 to $40 each. No brand name has been determined yet.