Uniqlo clothing brand founder Tadashi Yanai improperly watered his golf courses with water meant to help fight Maui wildfires during a severe drought, Maui Land & Pineapple Co. alleges in a searing rebuttal to a suit filed by Yanai in August.
The suit from Yanai’s Honolulu-based TY Management accuses Maui Land & Pineapple breached an agreement to provide water to the golf courses, which Yanai bought from Maui Land & Pineapple in 2009 and 2010. Yanai’s suit also argues that Maui Land & Pineapple failed to properly maintain a century-old irrigation system that provides water to the courses.
Maui Land & Pineapple denied those accusations in a document filed Tuesday, saying its water system is in fine shape. The company went further in a counterclaim, alleging — among other things — that the golf course hogged water from the system when restrictions required the water be used only for fire protection.
Maui Land & Pineapple included this photo in a counterclaim filed on Tuesday, alleging Tadashi Yanai’s TY Management Co. watered its Kapalua golf courses on June 25, 2025, when severe water restrictions were in place due to drought. (Maui Land & Pineapple Co.)
In June, the counterclaim alleges, “the courses consumed more than 11 million gallons of water — compared with just 80,000 for Maui County drinking water — while MLP’s agricultural tenants used none.”
“The problem is not MLP’s system,” Maui Land & Pineapple’s chief executive, Race Randle, said in a statement. “The problem is there has not been enough rain in the past year to supply stream water to all off-stream users in West Maui.”
In response, TY Management maintained its position: The problem lies with Maui Land & Pineapple’s irrigation system, called the Honokōhau Ditch System.
“The heart of those counterclaims is MLP’s demonstrably false statement … that ‘MLP has appropriately maintained the [ditch] system,’” TY Management said in a statement, responding to the counterclaim.
“Everyone knows that isn’t true, as our Complaint demonstrated in picture after picture and paragraph after paragraph,” TY Management continued. “MLP’s decision to sue TY and other West Maui water users just because they dared to hold MLP accountable is another attempt by MLP to distract the courts and the public from its many failings, as documented in the Complaint.”
Dispute Highlights West Maui Water Crisis
The dispute between two corporate giants underscores the tensions over water on Maui, particularly the western side of the island where Yanai’s Kapalua Plantation and Kapalua Bay golf courses are located.
Hawaiʻi’s Commission on Water Resource Management has designated West Maui a special Water Management Area, established for places where “serious disputes respecting the use of surface water resources are occurring.”
The designation requires water users to obtain permits for new water uses. It also allows the commission to set standards to ensure streams, including those feeding the Honokōhau ditch system, have an adequate flow of water to support things like aquatic life, recreation and Native Hawaiian cultural practices, including taro farming.
When the streamflow gets too low, water can’t be diverted to the ditch systems.
The current drought has led to water scarcities affecting more than 93% of the population, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That includes the golf courses. Earlier this month, the PGA Tour announced it was canceling The Sentry golf tournament in Kapalua next year. The PGA said the lack of water has significantly compromised the Plantation Course, where the tournament has been held as a signature event kicking off the PGA tour in early January.
Central to the dispute are water delivery agreements TY Management entered when it acquired the golf courses from Maui Land & Pineapple. TY Management alleges that Maui Land & Pineapple has reneged on those contracts by not keeping its promise to deliver water.
Maui Land & Pineapple disputes that.
“TY knows that no such promise was made,” the counterclaim says. “The TY Agreements expressly contemplate force majeure events, such as drought conditions, enactment and enforcement of laws or governmental regulations, and establish priority uses in those instances.”
Instead, the company asserts a simple explanation: “West Maui is experiencing a historic drought. There is not enough water for all users. Under Hawai‘i law, public trust uses, such as in-stream flows and drinking water, have priority over watering the lawns of luxury estates and resort homes, and golf courses.”
Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.
Sign Up
Sorry. That’s an invalid e-mail.
Thanks! We’ll send you a confirmation e-mail shortly.
