Officials open the extension to Narita’s second runway on Thursday in this image taken from TV.

Narita's extended 2nd runway goes into operation

Thursday 22nd October, 01:34 PM JST

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Beelzebub at 04:12 PM JST - 22nd October

Why does it take Japanese more than 30 years to do anything this simple? There's still no high-speed rail transport from the Narita terminals into Tokyo. In Shanghai, meanwhile, they're running mag-lev trains.
Richard_III at 04:16 PM JST - 22nd October

I agree.

In Shanghai, meanwhile, they're running mag-lev trains.

To the middle of nowhere though.

No wonder the folks out in Chiba are pxssed. I would be too.

Not as much as those of us who regularly have to use Narita.
kwatt at 05:34 PM JST - 22nd October

Not enough for hub airport. J government does not have political power to kick farmers out of there and maybe could have made more longer runways there as hub airport long time ago if used force.
Beelzebub at 05:48 PM JST - 22nd October

Back in the 70s before the airport construction was announced, sleazy LDP politicians and bureaucrats went around Sanrizuka buying up the land at bargain prices, which they sold to the government for a bloody fortune. Every time I saw a demonstration on TV (like the mushroom cloud of black, sooty smoke made from the pillar of burning tyres), I cheered the farmers on.
mindovermatter at 07:04 PM JST - 22nd October

Great!

That's just what they need!

Let's see if there's anything else you could possibly do to make catching an international flight any more difficult...

Here's an idea, there's some more open space up near Sendai, that I'm sure some Ganko farmers would really like to hold on to, why don't you close down Narita for Int'l flights, kick those farmers out by force, and then move all the Tokyo-Departures and Destination flights up to Sendai, then JR could really make some money with the new, Sendai Express OR SEX for short!

You know, it already takes damn near 2 hours to get to Narita from Tokyo, Hell, what's another 2 and half...
roomtemperature at 07:12 PM JST - 22nd October

Smithinjapan, why, according to you, is Haneda's fourth runway unnecessary?
roomtemperature at 07:15 PM JST - 22nd October

Actually Smith.....you shouldn't tell ME. The people in Kasumigaseki need your wise expertise much more.
Seawolf at 08:40 PM JST - 22nd October

I agree with Belzebub.They should extend the proposed Osaka-Tokyo Mag-Lev line - to Haneda! Than the Osaka and Chiba politicians can join hands in their complaining
ca1ic0cat at 08:41 PM JST - 22nd October

Wow, was it really since 1974? I know it went back into the 80's but sheesh. The NEX used to be kinda high speed but now it's more stop-and-go. The bit about the LDP sleezeballs profiting from knowledge of the project, I guess that's not a surprise. But the whole thing was a cluster f from the beginning.
Weasel at 10:28 PM JST - 22nd October

Guess it's OK to extend the runway, in so far as the airplanes don't take of earlier than 6 and land no later than 10.
DeepAir65 at 12:16 AM JST - 23rd October

J government does not have political power to kick farmers out of there

Farmers and Fishmen are the LDP's biggest contributors - or so I've heard...
YuriOtani at 02:32 AM JST - 23rd October

Beelzebub, Japan has land right in the constitution unlike the land of the fee where they can take your land at minimum payment to give to a greedy developer "for the public good".
bdiego at 07:04 AM JST - 23rd October

Delayed from 1974..interestingly pretty much exactly like the situation in Los Angeles 110 freeway where there's a 6 mile gap that has never been built for 30 years because of continuous local opposition. Oh, difference is we're still under construction delay. And we have eminent domain! They just manage to build a new "cultural heritage site" every other week.
bdiego at 07:05 AM JST - 23rd October

Correct YuriOtani, Japan does not appear to have eminent domain laws unlike many corrupt governments where the land can even be handed over to private developers. That said, the disadvantage is exactly this situation.
elbudamexicano at 10:00 PM JST - 24th October

Great! While stupid Japan finally makes an extenden 2n runway for Narita, South Korea has INCHON and I am sure the Chinese will so have pleanty of newly built, super wide and super cheap international and domestic airports making pleanty of HUB airports, with MAG LEV connections with ODA money from Japan?