Japan: a hypothetical future state
102 airports assessed. 49 have no tower and meet a tier 1 to 3 rule (11 / 33 / 5). 33 towered airports fit tiers 1 to 3. A hypothetical set of 7 centres covers them. 1 public traffic source loaded.
Orange, teal, pink and grey dots are suggested tiers. Hollow rings are towered airports that fit a tier. White-ringed orange dots are hypothetical centres. Green outlined dots are remote or digital towers already listed on this site. Basemap: OpenStreetMap data via Protomaps.
What it could enable
- Service where there is none. 49 airports have no tower but meet a traffic or infrastructure rule. Remote service could give them separation or advisory service they cannot justify as a conventional tower. About 12.5 million people live within 50 km of one of them and of no towered airport.
- Fewer, shared positions. 33 towered airports fit tiers 1 to 3. Serving some of them from 7 shared centres could change how towers are staffed, equipped and replaced when they age.
- Different working pattern. A centre of about 11.7 airports lets part-time airports share a controller across the day, and lets busy periods at different airports fall on different positions.
- Already moving. 1 airports here are listed on this site as remote or digital (operational, trial or planned). See them.
The gap in numbers
| Tier | No tower today | Towered today |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1: Full remote tower service | 11 | 30 |
| Tier 2: Part-time remote tower | 33 | 3 |
| Tier 3: Remote advisory (AFIS-like) | 5 | 0 |
| Tier 4: Surface awareness only | 0 | n/a |
| Large hub, left alone | n/a | 8 |
- Traffic on gap airports
- 36.6 million passengers (11 airports with a figure)
- Population
- 124.0 million (World Bank 2024)
- People in cities of 15,000+
- 141.3 million
- Within 50 km of a gap airport
- 78.3 million
- ... and of no towered airport
- 12.5 million
- Near only an isolated airfield
- 0
- Airports with air-ground service already
- 0 of the gap airports have an AFIS-type frequency listed
Candidate airports
| Airport | Tier | Class | Passengers | Movements | Centre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansai International Airport RJBB · Osaka | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 30,643,513 | n/a | |
| New Ishigaki Airport ROIG · Ishigaki | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 2,157,356 | n/a | |
| Kitakyushu Airport RJFR · Kitakyushu | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 737,335 | n/a | |
| Izumo Enmusubi Airport RJOC · Izumo | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 735,674 | n/a | |
| Yamaguchi Ube Airport RJDC · Ube | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 610,168 | n/a | |
| Iwate Hanamaki Airport RJSI · Hanamaki | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 353,349 | n/a | |
| Mount Fuji Shizuoka Airport RJNS · Makinohara / Shimada | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 328,296 | n/a | |
| Kyushu Saga International Airport RJFS · Saga | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 291,114 | n/a | |
| Yamagata Airport RJSC · Higashine | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 265,657 | n/a | |
| Tottori Sand Dunes Conan Airport RJOR · Tottori | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 242,440 | n/a | |
| Shonai Airport RJSY · Shonai | Tier 1 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | 234,372 | n/a | |
| Shinshu-Matsumoto Airport RJAF · Matsumoto | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Nanki Shirahama Airport RJBD · Shirahama | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Konotori Tajima Airport RJBT · Toyooka | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a | |
| Nakashibetsu Airport RJCN · Nakashibetsu | Tier 2 | No tower, scheduled passenger service | n/a | n/a |
Hypothetical centres
| Centre site | Airports | Tier 1 / 2 / 3 | Farthest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Okayama Momotaro Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 24 | 17 / 5 / 2 | 350 km |
| Akita Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 24 | 15 / 9 / 0 | 498 km |
| Amami Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 15 | 2 / 11 / 2 | 499 km |
| Shimojishima Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 5 | 3 / 2 / 0 | 222 km |
| Memanbetsu Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 6 | 2 / 4 / 0 | 280 km |
| Kobe Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 6 | 2 / 3 / 1 | 483 km |
| Fukuoka Airport Existing staffed tower facility | 2 | 0 / 2 / 0 | 129 km |
Responsible implementation
A tier on this page is a starting question. These are the topics any real plan would need to answer. Public guidance:
- EASA ED Decision 2023/005/R, guidance material on remote aerodrome air traffic services
- UK CAA: remote aerodrome air traffic services (CAP 670 and approval policy)
- EUROCAE ED-240A, minimum performance standards for remote tower optical systems
- FAA Digital Tower Systems page
- FAA AIP Program Guidance Letter 26-06 (design approval is not operational approval)
- ICAO Doc 4444, PANS-ATM, the procedures that remote services must still meet
Safety case and regulator approval
Each service needs its own safety case and approval before it carries traffic. A design approval for equipment is a different step from permission to run a service. The regulator named in this site's records for Japan: JCAB.
Controller workforce and training
Remote work changes the job: new displays, new failure modes, and new competence checks. A plan would cover who moves, who trains, how existing controllers choose, and what happens to current staff and their conditions.
Communications and surveillance
Radio, video and surveillance links must meet the latency and quality the safety case assumes. Tier 1 and 2 airports need reliable cameras, redundant links and a surveillance picture for traffic that radar or ADS-B cannot see from the ground.
Contingency and redundancy
Every centre needs a fallback: a second path for data, a backup position, and a rule for what the airport does when a link fails (hold, divert, revert to advisory). Centres that serve many airports need a plan for losing all of them at once.
Cybersecurity
A centre is a single high-value target. It needs the same protections as other air traffic systems: segmented networks, supply-chain checks, logging, and tested recovery.
Community and labour engagement
Airports, airlines, pilots, unions, local governments and neighbours should be in the process before decisions, not after. Jobs can move away from small airports, and that is a real cost to a community.
Sources
- OurAirports: airports, runways, frequencies.
- GeoNames cities of 15,000 or more; World Bank population.
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism airport statistics, as compiled on Wikipedia (top 50; 2024 where given, else 2022)
Towers already listed for Japan: remote and digital sites in Japan.