1Recycler, thank you for your update. You are probably one of very few i-MiEV owners in the entire state of Nebraska, and IIRC the only one on this forum. Welcome!
The older I get the more reluctant I am to offer specific advice, not knowing what an individual's technical expertise is. Despite my age, I myself continue doing dumb things (see Don's recent post on tire pressures), but know enough to keep one hand in my pocket when working around high voltage (I started when vacuum tubes and HV CRT's were the rage) and usually just suffer the consequences by letting smoke out of some expensive electronics without getting electrocuted or blinded.
With that cautionary preamble, 1Recycler, your question was already very ably and specifically answered by kiev, as the issue deals with ground fault detection circuitry within the Mitsubishi (Panasonic) EVSE. Over the years we've had numerous discussions about this. Here is one such thread -
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=358
Summarizing -
1. The 'problem' is that there is no connection between the inverter's 120vac ground and neutral pins, which causes the EVSE fault detection circuitry to inhibit charging activation.
2. When using an inverter ONLY to power the i-MiEV EVSE, one simple solution is to make an adapter plug which is internally modified to fool the ground fault detection circuitry. What one then does is plug this adapter into the second 120vac socket on the inverter. There are a number of different ways of doing this (from crude and simple to complicated and supposedly safe), some of which are described in the above thread.
3. Be sure to remove this adapter when using the inverter for any other purpose.
Another cautionary note: as a general rule, DO NOT attach the inverter to house wiring if your power goes out and instead run an
extension cord directly from the inverter to, for example, a refrigerator in that situation.
Have fun, and let us know how things turn out.
PS. I modified this thread's title to indicate it relates to charging using an inverter (easier to find in the future).