Keith Amemiya (born September 1, 1965) is an American business executive and politician who ran in the 2020 Honolulu mayoral election, and in 2022 for

lieutenant governor of Hawaii The lieutenant governor of Hawaii () is the assistant chief executive of the U.S. state of Hawaii and its various agencies and departments, as provided in the Article V, Sections 2 though 6 of the Constitution of Hawaii. Elected by popular suff ...

Background

Amemiya is the son of former Hawaii Attorney General Ronald Amemiya. His mother suffered from mental illness and Keith was brought up by various relatives until he moved in with a friend whose father, Bert T. Kobayashi Jr., became Keith's

hānai ''Hānai'' is a term used in the Hawaiian culture that refers to the informal adoption of one person by another. It can be used as an adjective, such as "''hānai'' child," or as a verb, to ''hānai'' someone into the family. Traditionally, ''hān ...

father. After graduating from Punahou in 1983, Amemiya studied finance and law at the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

, where he earned his degrees. Since January 2021, Amemiya has served as executive director of the Central Pacific Bank Foundation. Before running for elected office, he was the senior vice president of Island Holdings, Inc., starting in 2012, and executive director of the

Hawaii High School Athletic Association Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) is an athletic conference made up of 95 public and private high schools in the state of Hawaii. It was founded in 1956 and is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations. T ...

from 1998 to 2010. Until 2019 he was the campaign treasurer for U.S. Senator

Brian Schatz Brian Emanuel Schatz ( ; born October 20, 1972) is an American educator and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Hawaii, a seat he has held since 2012. A member ...

, and was appointed by several state leaders to serve on citizen boards, including the

Honolulu Police Commission The Honolulu Police Commission consists of seven Police Commissioners (members). They do not receive compensation for their five-year terms. Their terms are staggered, and each member serves until their replacements are appointed by the Mayor and co ...

, Hawaii Board of Education, and

Aloha Stadium Aloha Stadium is a closed multi-purpose stadium in Halawa, Hawaii, a census-designated place that is a western suburb of Honolulu. It is the largest stadium in the state of Hawaii. , the stadium ceased fan-attended operations indefinitely, and ...

Authority board.

2020 Honolulu mayoral election

With no candidate receiving an outright majority of the vote in the August 8

nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan primary, top-two primary, or jungle primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of political party. This distinguishes them from partisan primaries, w ...

, the top two finishers, Amemiya and

Rick Blangiardi Richard John Blangiardi (born September 15, 1946) is an American television executive and politician from the state of Hawaii. Blangiardi was elected mayor of Honolulu in the 2020 mayoral election, and took office on January 2, 2021. He previous ...

, advanced to a runoff on November 3. In the primary, former U.S. representative for Hawaii's 1st congressional district

Colleen Hanabusa Colleen Wakako Hanabusa (, born May 4, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2015 and again from 2016 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she ran for her party's nomination for ...

, former state senator John Carroll, and former mayor of Honolulu

Mufi Hannemann Muliufi Francis Hannemann (born July 16, 1954) is an American politician, businessman, and non-profit executive. He was elected twice as Mayor of Honolulu in 2004 and 2008. Hannemann has served as a special assistant in Washington, D.C., with t ...

were eliminated along with many other candidates. Blangiardi won the runoff with 58.2% of the vote.

Japanese in Hawaii The Japanese in Hawaii (simply Japanese Hawaiians or "Local Japanese", rarely Kepanī) are the second largest ethnic group in Hawaii. At their height in 1920, they constituted 43% of Hawaii's population. They now number about 16.7% of the isl ...

are the state's second-largest ethnic group, and Amemiya would have been the first mayor of

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

ancestry. In 2025, JL Capital CEO Timothy Lee was indicted for allegedly contributing $13,000 under false names to Honolulu mayoral campaigns in 2020. Amemiya received $5,000 of those contributions and said he did not know about them.

Endorsements

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...

Honolulu City Council Honolulu City Council is the legislature of the City and County of Honolulu, the capital and largest city in Hawai'i, the fiftieth state in the United States. The City and County of Honolulu is a municipal corporation that manages government a ...

members Anderson, Elefante, Manahan,

Pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

, and Waters *Hawaii Government Employees Association

2022 Hawaii lieutenant gubernatorial election

With 23.2% of the vote, Amemiya placed third in the 2022 Democratic primary election for Hawaii lieutenant governor and was thus eliminated.

Personal life

Amemiya's biological parents divorced when he was 10 years old, and he was raised afterward by a friend's family. Amemiya met his wife, Bonny (née Suzui), in 1995 when she was the CFO of a local fast food chain. They married in 1996 and have a son. In February 2021, Amemiya was appointed as executive director of Central Pacific Bank Foundation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amemiya, Keith 1965 births Living people American business executives Hawaii politicians of Japanese descent Hawaii Democrats University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Candidates in the 2020 United States elections Candidates in the 2022 United States elections 21st-century American politicians of Asian descent