http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_...tional_Airport

Guess I should've checked the wikipedia first! @:-) Looks like 'Phase II' was a sore point...

Expanding Haneda certainly is an option -- and it's happening right now. Haneda's new Terminal 2 was just opened in December, construction of the third runway is under way and a new Terminal 3 for international flights is likely to be built before the end of the decade.

Aside from mere corruption, there was also a major bureaucratic catfights between Chiba (NRT) and Kanagawa (HND) prefectures over international flight rights. But the logjam finally broke in HND's favor a few years ago, with regular 'scheduled charter' flights to GMP (Seoul) and lots more to follow when/if Terminal 3 gets the formal go-ahead.

A Honqqiao (Shanghai) - Gimpo (Seoul) - Haneda (Tokyo) shuttle service would be more than desirable. Having to change from INT to DOM airports in those three cities is taking an annoying amount of time. Especially when flying to/from Korean provincial cities. It's incomprehensible how few INT connections exist from outside Incheon anyway and the lack of DOM flights adds to the problem.

Currently flights between GMP and HND are among the most expensive in Asia if not the world considering the distance and one would hope to get more competition there too.

Not sure about now but back in the 1980's I used to go to Tokyo on China Airlines from LAX to Haneda. Japan did not recognize Rebublic of China (Taiwan) as a country so they were allowed to land at the "domestic" airport. JAL also had a subsidiary called Japan Asia Airways that flew from Haneda to Taiwan on Streached DC-8's .

Yes, CI flew in/out of HND up until a couple of years ago when they moved to NRT. Actually, the reason why CI was forced to fly into Haneda back in the late 1970s (when all other international flights were moved to Narita) wasn't necessarily because Japan switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC, but because at the time China's air carrier, CAAC (now Air China) did not want to fly into the same airport as CI. As time went on, this was kind of a silly reason, given that PRC and Taiwan (ROC) airlines flew into common airports such as HKG and BKK. And after getting over the initial humiliation of being forced to stay at the old, beat up Haneda airport (then), CI turned their lone representation at Haneda into a big selling point---it's a lot more convenient to central Tokyo than NRT. CI had very high load factors on these flights, not surprisingly.

Also, after awhile, the Japanese government WANTED CI to move to NRT because of the extra costs of having to maintain customs and immigrations facilities just for them at HND, and for many years, CI refused, because they were enjoying a good run being at HND.

Japan Asia Airways (JAA) was another child of the political contentiousness between the PRC and Taiwan, it was set up specifically for Japan-Taiwan flights after Japan switched diplomatic relations to the PRC and JAL stopped flying to Taiwan in the mid 1970s. I don't think it flew out of Haneda after international flights were switched over to Narita in 1978, though. They've had a reputation for flying cast-off, older aircraft from JAL and some Taiwanese have interpreted it as a snub to Taiwan for that.

BA and AF have also set up similar units, called British Asia Airways and Air France Asie, respectively, though I think it's just a formality and they fly the same planes going on to Europe.

In the immediate postwar era, Japan's population wasn't quite as urbanized, so the political system may not have been so weighed towards rural areas then, but over time, as more and more people moved to the cities, this changed.

The Occupation authorities felt that rural poverty was a big factor (though not the only one) which encouraged the growth of Japanese militarism. Thus, a very thorough and far-reaching land reform program was implemented. This was very effective in reducing rural poverty as well as increasing agricultural productivity. The other consequence was of course that rural voters gained real clout, and legislators of rural districts made sure that their constituents got their fair share of the gravy (and the pork) when it came to public works projects. Not surprisingly, you'll find many areas of rural Japan pretty "overbuilt" with public infrastructure that is way more than they need.