List of airports in Japan
This is a list of airports in Japan, grouped by classification and sorted by location. As of February 2012, the country has a total of 98 airports, of which 28 are operated by the central government and 67 by local governments.
Airport classifications
In Japan, airports serving civil aviation routes are governed by the Aeronautical Law for safety purposes, by the Noise Prevention Law for noise prevention purposes and by the Airport Act for economic development purposes. The latter law groups such airports into four legal classifications:Hub/First Class airports serve a hub role in domestic or international transportation. They are subdivided into privately managed airports, national airports and special regional airports.Regional/Second Class airports are other prefectural/municipal airports that the central government deems important to national aviation.Joint-use/Third Class airports are those shared between civil aviation and the Japan Self-Defense Forces.Other airports fall outside the above categories.Some airports in Japan do not fall under the scope of the Japanese airport statutes. These include the three major U.S. military air bases in Japan and certain smaller aerodromes for firefighting, corporate or other special purposes. In 2001, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which receives 20% of the public-works construction budget, commenced a scheme to build airfields predominantly for airlifting vegetables. Kasaoka Airfield was one of nine airfields constructed; however it was later determined that flying vegetables to Okayama from Kasaoka took just as long due to loading and unloading, and cost approximately six times as much as road transport.