Senate committee backs translating real‑estate exam into Japanese for timeshare industry amid continuing‑education concerns

The Senate Committee on Economic Development and Tourism on April 10 recommended passage of HCR 102, a concurrent resolution asking the appropriate state bodies to allow the real‑estate licensing exam to be translated into Japanese to assist the timeshare industry.

Linda Rodrigues, testifying on behalf of ARDA Hawaii, said the timeshare industry has more than 15,000 units and that translating the real‑estate exam into Japanese would help secure Japanese owners and speed onboarding of bilingual sales professionals. "Our Japanese timeshare owners love Hawaii and return every year," Rodrigues said, arguing that making the exam available in Japanese would accelerate workforce planning and sales activity.

Supporters at the hearing included Merit Vacations Worldwide and APAC Hawaii; the Real Estate Commission was present to answer questions. The commission and some senators raised concerns that licensing includes 20 hours of mandatory continuing education and that translating only the initial exam could allow someone to obtain a license without long‑term English proficiency to follow future legal or procedural changes. Senator Wakai asked whether ARDA or the timeshare industry would pay for continuing‑education classes in languages other than English.

"We're not really asking to translate the entire curriculum," Rodrigues said, noting the proposal was to allow the exam itself to be taken in Japanese while continuing education and most coursework would remain in English.

Committee members pressed for the scale of the need; ARDA estimated the change might affect "a couple of hundred" industrywide.

The committee recorded its recommendation to pass HCR 102 as submitted.

The transcript records the committee vote as "pass as is" and adoption of the chair's recommendation; the resolution will proceed through the legislative process for any additional consideration.