Flying one-way from Tokyo-Beijing
 

I'm planning an Asian trip for January and am trying to find the cheapest one-way flight from Tokyo to Beijing. The cheapest I've been able to find is $940 on kayak.com, which is pretty high to me. Is there a way to get a one-way flight much cheaper than that?

Book a round trip ticket and after you get to China call up and tell them your plans have changed and you will rebook the return later (if you have other travel on that airline and don't want other flights cancelled) or just don't show up for the return flight.

Try NW RT
 

A friend of mine is doing that trip from PEK-NRT and had the same problem.

He ended up booking NW RT for $480 and just won't fly the return.

Have flown into PEK one way before (from YYZ), but in this case, (echoing giraffe's thoughts) if round trip is cheaper then I would just get the roundtrip and be a no show for the return.

Don't you need a return ticket (out of China) just in order to get a Chinese tourist visa in the first place?

Crumble makes a good point - to get your visa for China, you'll likely need to show how you intend to enter and leave the country. Having a throw away ticket could cause problems in this case.

One other option is to look at flights to China with a stopover in NRT, which are often cheaper than trying to book a separate one way ticket out of NRT.

Since 1984 I have visited China on countless occasions and have received more than 30 visas of different types and links to visit China, with the exception of my very firt trip which was part of a group I have never ONCE not once been asked to provide any proof of having a RT ticket in order to get a visa, nor have I ever been questioned at passport control. Therefore this is not an issue. Generally I have been able to Y RT's for under $40 and evn biz RT's for under $600 at times, you'll be better off getting it/them locally and just throw away the return if you do not need it.

OP, another option is checking out vayama.com. I recently booked a relatively reasonable flight from SFO-PVG-NRT-SFO. It may not be super-cheap but for international flights, it should be a smidgen cheaper than kayak.