Transit through Narita
 

I'm a US citizen arriving from Hawaii to Narita on United. I then have an Air China flight to Beijing leaving in two hrs. I will only have one carry-on bag as my luggage. Will I have to go through customs or security at Narita, or will I be able to just de-plane and go right over to the Air China gate for my flight? Thanks.

You go through security and then to your gate.

Do you think an hour and fifty minutes is enough time? Would it be any faster if the bag was checked going to Narita as it would be sent on to the flight to Beijing? Wouldn't I already be in the secure area?

Yes. Not significantly. No.

Thank you very much. That tight transition was weighing heavily on me.

If you have to claim and re-check your bags, you'll have to go through inbound Immigration, get your bags, go through Customs, check your bags, go through security, and then outbound Immigration. If you check your bags all the way through, only one step: transit security.

If the OP travels with carry on luggage only, he will deplane and take his luggage through security. Then he will be at the departure gates. It will not have any significant effect on the time it takes him to get from plane to gate.

Unless he intends to purchase a bottle of liquid en-route to NRT, I can't think of a reason to check bags as far as NRT, and collect them, take them through customs, and re-check them. That's a real edge case.

Mods,
Why do we continually have three new threads on this topic every week? Can't this be made into a sticky.

1hr 50min is usually enough time. Sometimes, however, there is a long line at the transit security with many Chinese travelers on connecting flights. I always try to deplane as soon as possible to try to beat the crowd.