I'm not a pilot nor do I know the tecnicalities about FAA fuel requirements but in the 6 or 7 exchanges between NW1 and the flight controller, the gist was that NW1 could hold for 15 minutes and not the 30-35 minutes that was in effect. I was just surprised that the flight crew didn't know about the possibility of weather related problems at NRT before they took off and that they might have to take on extra fuel. I am surprised that the "window" was so short and what if Haneda was also having weather related problems? At one point, NW1 was asked whether they wanted to declare an emergency (or something to that effect). Japan is after all an island and isn't there a possibility that the weather could be affecting all the airports within range on the island? I think it would be logical to assume that if there was a real danger that NW1 would have been allowed to jump the queue and land. I wasn't thinking about the actual possibility of the plane running out of fuel and crashing but more of the inconveninece of some of the passengers on the plane missing their connections. I just found it hard to believe that an international flight over water would not have enough fuel for a 1/2 hold when I'm sure we've all been on flights that were in a holding pattern for more than 1/2 an hour. The head wind near Japan has always range from 150 to 200 mph and the airspeed can drop down to below 400 mph everytime I flew from LAX at this time if the year. Anyway, just my two cents worth.