Site Selection for New Airport in Japan

The purpose of this research is to develop a methodology for evaluating the site selection decision for a new international airport in Japan in the 1960s. The selection decision, of course, is long completed and the new airport long opened. The project selection and development process, however, was disastrous. Thus, objective of the methodology developed in this research is to show how the process could have been improved.

In 1978, Narita Airport, a new international airport to serve as the gateway to Japan through Tokyo, opened. The original schedule for the opening of the airport was 1971; however, several problems (not least those involving opponents of the Narita site) caused both time delays and cost overruns on the project (Peters, 2000).

The decision on the site of the new international airport for the Tokyo area was between the Narita site in Chiba Prefecture (east of Tokyo) and an expansion of the existing airport at Haneda (south of Tokyo). The analyses, evaluations, and conflicts concerning the site selection began in the 1960s, continued through the construction process, and extend to this day in relation to adding runways at Narita ("Statement by the Toho Farmers [Narita]", 1999).

Each of the proposed sites was plagued with its own set of problems, as well as some advantages. Haneda was a working international airport where the local population accepted the presence of an airpo