Musically, Kajiwara performs in the genres of American / British pop, Hawaiian music, and traditional Ryukyuan music, sometimes combining elements from all four. He plays piano, guitar, and the traditional Ryukyuan musical instrument, the sanshin, which he inherited from his great-grandfather. He cites the Beatles and Elton John as heavy influences. Kajiwara is a student of Nelson Del Pino, an artist developer based in the Seattle-Tacoma area. As an actor, he studied the Meisner technique. In 2019 Kajiwara announced during concerts in both Tokyo and Okinawa that he is being featured in the upcoming popmusical / romantic comedy filmMore Than Just a Brick in the Wall, which has a $39,000,000 budget. The film is inspired by the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night, the Zhang Yimou film Happy Times, and the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do! It is expected to be released later in 2020. Alan Rickman had originally expressed interest in playing a major role in the film before his passing in 2016.
Activism
Kajiwara has been an outspoken advocate of the preservation and promotion of indigenous history, culture, languages, and rights. He is a frequent speaker at events held by Ryukyu or Okinawan independence groups. In 2017 he was made a cultural representative of Nakagusuku Village. In 2018 he was named a Special Envoy of Ke Aupuni O Hawaii, a Hawaiian sovereignty organization. Kajiwara believes there are five basic elements that make up the Ryukyuan identity: culture, history, language, environment, and national identity. He argues that "an independent, neutral, and demilitarized Ryukyu can resume its role as a center of peace in the Asia-Pacific region." On December 8, 2018 Kajiwara started a petition calling for a stop to the construction of the military base being built at Henoko, Okinawa. The petition gained 100,000 signatures in its first ten days, and currently has over 210,000 signatures total. In January 2019 he, along with many other peace activists from around the world, founded the Peace For Okinawa Coalition. The Coalition has called for greater cooperation between Okinawa, Hawaii, and Guam, to support each other in their shared goals. They condemned the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea as well as Governor of Hawaii David Ige's handling of the situation. In July 2019 Kajiwara spoke at the United Nations 41st Human Rights Council, asking for an investigation into Japan's human rights violations against Ryukyuans.
On February 20, 2019 while entering Japan from Hawaii at Kansai International Airport, Kajiwara was detained by immigration for 110 minutes. Kajiwara was scheduled to speak at the Japan Diet the next day about the Henoko military base construction. According to Kajiwara he was interrogated and threatened to be denied entry into Japan before the Okinawan congressman Teruya Kantoku personally intervened on his behalf. Critics of the Shinzo Abe administration called this an attempt to interfere in peace activism. The Kansai immigration bureau responded they had "no particular agenda" in the detention. The next day the Japan police did an investigation on Kajiwara in Nakagusuku, Okinawa interviewing Kajiwara's relatives, friends, and associates. Kajiwara's supporters and critics of the Abe administration condemned the investigation, calling it harassment and intimidation. The police stated that they wanted to protect Kajiwara from potential attacks or harassment from far-right Japanese neo-nationalists who favor the Henoko military base, though Kajiwara and others dismissed such claims, stating that the police never interviewed him directly and did nothing to protect him from potential threats.
