Any updates to this story in the last couple of years?

I was thinking about this yesterday as I was flying from NRT. In all my years flying to, from and through Japan I have never seen NRT as busy as it was yesterday. For sure some of that is due to the time of year, but it was absolutely full of people and had a significant increase in the number of departures and gates in use compared to any time I’ve seen it in the past.

fares to Japan to/from anywhere in the U.S. except LAX also seem very high regardless of which airport you’re arriving at.

It seems like a weird status quo where operations are split between the two airports and where the luck of where you’re originating on the U.S. side will determine whether you have good domestic Japan connections or not.

are the airlines happy with the status quo? Anybody lobbying to change it?