The Mensōre Okinawa Kenmin Undō Suishin Kyōgikai, a newly-formed coalition of Okinawan tourism organizations, decided to produce shirts featuring Okinawaness and named them kariyushi shirts in 1990.
In 2005, when the "Summer casual dress" idea was introduced mainly for the Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yuriko Koike, the environment minister, also took on the responsibility of minister for Okinawa and promoted the kariyushi shirt as part of the Cool Biz campaign.