Latest news with #KansaiAirport
India.com
6 days ago
- India.com
International airport with flights to 91 cities sinking in sea rapidly, airport is..., reason...
New Delhi: Japan's Kansai International Airport is currently facing a serious crisis. This airport, built on 2 artificial islands in the middle of Osaka Bay, is continuously sinking into the earth. The situation has become such that Japan has to take immediate steps so that the situation does not worsen. What is wrong with the airport's design? According to the report of The Straits Times, the surface of the island has gone down by 3.84 meters so far. Since the construction of the airport, it has sunk by a total of 13.6 meters. When this airport opened in 1994, it was seen as an excellent design floating on soft sea soil. However, in just 8 years it has gone down by about 12 meters. Why is it sinking so fast? The weight of the airport and the soft soil of the sea are not able to handle it. Now the rising sea level and natural changes are slowly taking it towards the depths of the sea, due to which its future is in danger. Kansai Airport has set a record of no baggage loss for more than 10 years so far. In 2024, it was declared the world's best luggage handling airport. During the 2018 typhoon Jebi, there was heavy flooding, and the airport had to be temporarily closed. Engineers are constantly working on stabilizing the airport. What do experts say? According to the latest data for 2024, an average annual descending of 6 centimeters has been recorded in the first part of the island while up to 21 centimeters in the second part. This airport still remains an international connection for 91 cities. Kansai International Airport is the primary international airport in the Greater Osaka Area of Japan and the closest international airport to the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. It is located on an artificial island, Kankūjima in the middle of Osaka Bay off the Honshu shore.
Time of India
09-07-2025
- General
- Time of India
Japan's Kansai International Airport is sinking into the ocean; know what went wrong
Japan's Kansai International Airport is sinking Kansai International Airport (KIX) in Japan has long been considered an engineering marvel. Built entirely on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, it serves as a major aviation hub connecting over 30 million passengers each year to 91 cities across 25 countries. Since opening in 1994, KIX has grown into one of Asia's busiest and most critical international airports. But behind this success story lies a persistent and worsening issue: the entire airport is sinking into its soft clay foundation. According to a report by The South China Morning Post, the original island has sunk about 12.5 feet since its opening. The second island added later during expansion, has already descended 57 feet since landfill work began. In just the last year alone, officials recorded 21 centimetres of sinking at 54 separate monitoring points on the newer island. These figures highlight a growing concern—not just about the engineering design, but also the future of this key transport hub as sea levels rise and extreme weather events become more frequent. Despite these challenges, the airport remains fully operational, and engineers are working constantly to manage and slow down the rate of subsidence. This article explores why Kansai is sinking, how engineers are responding, and what lessons Japan has learned from this ambitious project. Why Kansai Airport was built on water KIX was constructed on a man-made island 5 kilometres offshore to address land shortages in the Osaka region and reduce noise complaints from densely populated areas. The engineering plan involved creating a foundation on about 20 meters of soft alluvial clay, known for its compressibility and instability. To tackle this, engineers installed 2.2 million vertical pipe drains to speed up the soil consolidation process and used over 200 million cubic meters of landfill and 48,000 tetrapods to stabilize the site. Despite this effort, the clay base continues to compress under the airport's weight. As explained by Hiroo Ichikawa, professor emeritus of urban planning and policy at Meiji University, 'It is sinking by less than 10 centimetres a year now, but that is slowing and manageable.' (South China Morning Post, 2024) Why Typhoon Jebi was a wake-up call for Japan's sinking airport The airport's vulnerability was fully exposed in 2018 when Typhoon Jebi, the strongest storm to hit Japan in 25 years, brought massive flooding. As reported by The Guardian, a storm surge flooded the airport's basement-level disaster response centre and electric substation, leaving 5,000 travellers stranded without power or transport for more than 24 hours. A fuel tanker even collided with the bridge connecting the airport to the mainland, cutting off the only road access. This event not only disrupted operations but also led engineers to reevaluate key design elements—particularly the placement of critical systems underground in a facility prone to flooding and subsidence. Ongoing sinking of Kansai International Airport: Latest measurements and response According to data published in The Straits Times and The Nation Thailand (June 2024), the second island experienced 21 centimetres of sinking in a single year, while the original island continues to settle at about 4 inches (10 cm) per year. Though slower than before, the subsidence has not stopped. In response, over $150 million has been invested in upgrading the airport's seawalls and reinforcing infrastructure. Engineers have elevated key equipment, such as power systems and disaster response centres, above potential flood levels. The goal is not to stop the sinking—because that's impossible—but to manage it within safe limits, as emphasized by Professor Ichikawa. 'The effect of sinking was taken into consideration in the design,' he said. 'Engineers are constantly monitoring conditions at KIX and are working to limit the subsidence, but nothing is impossible and it really is just a question of cost.' (South China Morning Post, 2024) Lessons learned: A smarter airport in Nagoya Kansai's experience has helped shape future airport construction in Japan. When Chubu Centrair International Airport opened in 2005 near Nagoya, engineers applied key lessons from KIX—especially in choosing more stable ground and keeping essential systems above sea level. This has paid off. According to Skytrax, Chubu Centrair has been named the world's best regional airport for 11 consecutive years through 2025. The facility has experienced minimal subsidence and has proven far more resilient to climate risks and natural disasters. Also read | What is 'Naked Flying': The minimalist travel trend taking off around the world
Asahi Shimbun
02-07-2025
- Asahi Shimbun
Hurting fishing communities try to lure tourists for extra income
Passengers aboard a boat off Inatori Port in Higashi-Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, look at the coast on May 5. (Sho Hatsumi) Suffering from steadily shrinking hauls, fishing communities around Japan are targeting something that is much more in abundance: tourists. Some are offering 'fishing boat cruises' during nonfishing hours. Others are promoting land-based attractions to gain extra income. The government is backing such moves under the catchword of 'umigyo' (sea industries), a generic term for projects that use marine resources. Japan's total fishery haul, including from aquaculture, fell below 4 million tons in 2022, less than one-third of the peak levels of the 1980s. The average income for privately operated fishing boats has hovered between 2 million yen and 3 million yen ($14,000 and $21,000), and the demographic of fishermen is shrinking and aging. Inatori Port in Higashi-Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, known for catches of 'kinmedai' (splendid alfonsino), is one of the many areas around Japan with dwindling catches. Kinmedai are usually caught in the early morning hours. But on one afternoon in early May, the Inari Maru fishing boat with a gross tonnage of 12 tons left Inatori Port. Ten minutes after departure, the voice of a guide called out to the 10 tourists aboard through a speaker. 'Look toward the coast, please,' the voice said. 'The pair of big rocks you will see are 'Hasami Ishi' (holding rocks).' The passengers trained their cameras on the oddly shaped rocks that appeared to be holding a smaller rock. 'I am taking a ride on a fishing boat for the first time,' said Masami Komon, a 61-year-old passenger from Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. 'A ride on a sightseeing boat is nowhere near this compelling.' The passengers were also treated to 'sanga yaki,' a local fish dish, during the approximately 40-minute cruise. The Inari Maru crew's main job is pole-and-line fishing for deep-sea kinmedai. The total catch of the species across Shizuoka Prefecture dropped from around 3,000 tons in the 2000s to only 1,157 tons in 2024, according to the Shizuoka Prefectural Research Institute of Fishery and Ocean. 'We would catch 300 kilograms in a day 20 years ago,' said Naohisa Uchiyama, captain of the Inari Maru. 'Nowadays, however, we catch only 20 or 30 kg a day, and our earnings are dropping from year to year.' The Inari Maru would remain idly moored at the port during the day after fishing ended at around 8 a.m. Uchiyama, 59, decided on the additional use of the boat. The Inari Maru has so far given rides to more than 1,000 tourists. Earnings from the cruises now match about one-third of the revenue gained from fishing. The captain is still adjusting to the new venture. 'Deciding whether we should be setting out to sea on a cruise is more difficult than when we are setting out to fish,' Uchiyama said. POPULAR MARKET At Tajiri Fishing Port in Tajiri, Osaka Prefecture, just across from Kansai Airport, a morning market held every Sunday consistently draws many visitors. The stalls selling seafood fresh from Osaka Bay are manned by fishermen themselves, one of the charms of the market. Customers routinely line up for deep-fried servings of tempura and other products. 'Some customers say they are surprised to learn there are so many fish in Osaka Bay,' one fisherman at a market stall said. 'I feel happy when my customers tell me that my fish tasted good.' Catches at Tajiri dropped when the fishing ground was reduced through land reclamation work for Kansai Airport, which opened in 1994. The morning market started that same year in hoped of improving the fishermen's incomes. 'I never expected the market would be visited by so many people,' said Eiichi Nishiura, the 75-year-old head of the Tajiri fisheries cooperative association. SAUNA WITH A VIEW A Finnish-style sauna complex opened in May in the Kaigan-dori (seaside) district of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, which boasts one of Japan's largest hauls of Pacific saury and silver salmon. Sauna users relaxing under a sea breeze can watch ships come and go. The complex also has a barbecue ground outside the sauna building, and guests can buy food at a supermarket and fish shops nearby. The sauna complex stands on a seaside square that was the seat of Onagawa's most flourishing commercial facility until the area was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Onagawa Future Creation, a community development company, built the sauna complex in hopes of restoring liveliness in the district. 'Being a disaster-stricken area that has since been rebuilt is not enough to attract people,' said Yoshihide Abe, the 56-year-old president of the company. 'I hope people will come here and use the sauna.' GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE The government's Basic Plan for Fisheries in 2022 included umigyo promotion. The goal is to increase the size of the 'exchange population' between cities and fishing villages by 2 million over five years from the current 20 million. Yasuhiro Sanada, head director of the Ocean Governance Institute, expressed a cautious stance toward the government initiative. 'The overall direction for increasing non-fishery earnings has been rightly set,' Sanada said. 'But there is a need to keep watch so the government policy will not be used as a pretext for maintaining budgets and organizations for fishing port development.' 'UMIGYO' PROJECTS UNDER WAY OR BEING PLANNED * Tours to an inland plant for sea urchin aquaculture and hands-on experiences in sea urchin processing (Kamoenai Fishing Port in Kamoenai, Hokkaido) * A glamping complex that draws on the availability of seafood and scenery (Himi Fishing Port in Himi, Toyama Prefecture) * Hands-on experiences in beach seine fishery for students on school excursions (Tomiura Fishing Port in Minami-Boso, Chiba Prefecture) * Tours to a market, mock bidding experiences, and a salon for talking to fishermen (Ohama Fishing Port in Toba, Mie Prefecture) * Hands-on experiences in maintaining forests with fishermen (Miura Bay fishing port in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture) (This article was written by Sho Hatsumi, Takuya Nishie and Hiroyuki Yaginuma.)
The Independent
23-06-2025
- The Independent
Why the world's best airport for luggage handling is sinking into the sea
The Kansai international airport, built on a pair of manmade islands in Japan's Osaka Bay, was once celebrated as a marvel of engineering. Now it's sinking into the sea. The airport is grappling with subsidence problems because it is built on soft clay that cannot adequately support its immense weight. This ongoing sinking threatens the airport's future, as rising seas and natural forces slowly pull down the engineering wonder closer to the depths. The Japanese airport was hailed as a landmark solution to overcrowding – it was meant to alleviate congestion at the nearby Osaka airport – and a model of regional economic competition when it opened in 1994. It was originally estimated to sink 13 feet in 50 years but has outpaced that prediction by going down over 42 feet since construction. 'When the Kansai airport was constructed, the amount of soil to reclaim the land was determined based on necessary ground level and subsidence estimation over 50 years after the construction,' Yukako Handa, former communications director for Kansai Airports, which managed the artificial islands as well as the original Osaka Itami airport on the mainland, told Smithsonian magazine in 2018. He said engineers were astonished by the discrepancy between laboratory predictions of soil consolidation – the process whereby newly added soil layers solidify into a stable base – and the much faster settling that occurred after thousands of tons of fill were deposited into the bay. Last year, the Kansai airport recorded 169,774 flight arrivals and departures and handled 25.9 million passengers, just shy of the pre-pandemic peak of 29.4 million. It was recognised as the world's best airport for luggage handling, according to The Straits Times, maintaining its record of no lost luggage for over a decade. The Kansai airport was conceived as a solution to overcrowding at the Osaka international airport, which was hemmed in by dense urban development. Finding no room for expansion on land, planners opted for an ambitious offshore site in the Osaka Bay, far enough to avoid disturbing local communities, yet close enough to serve the region effectively. This entailed pulling off the engineering feat of building artificial islands on a seabed over 60 feet deep, with Japan 's seismic risks in mind. The runways were specifically designed to flex during earthquakes, reducing the risk of cracks and structural damage. The project cost around £14bn. The airport was constructed atop a seabed composed of soft alluvial clay, which engineers knew would compress under the immense weight of the artificial islands. To accelerate and control this expected sinking, they installed sand drains. However, the subsidence proved far more severe than anticipated. By 1990, just three years into construction, the site had already sunk 27 feet, far surpassing the projection of 19 feet. Despite efforts to manage the sinking with advanced techniques like sand drains, the forces beneath the surface proved too powerful and unpredictable. This dramatic early subsidence revealed just how fragile the airport's foundation truly was. At its core, the Kansai airport's ongoing sinking stems from the very nature of its foundation: soft, loose clay and silt beneath the seabed that naturally compresses under immense weight. The enormous landfill used to create the artificial islands put relentless pressure on this unstable ground, and construction moved forward before the sediment had fully settled, setting the stage for continuous and unavoidable subsidence. To reduce the airport's rapid sinking, engineers invested around £112m to reinforce and raise the seawall around it. They also installed 2.2 million vertical sand-filled pipes deep into the clay seabed to help drain excess moisture and stabilise the ground. These efforts slowed the rate of subsidence. In 1994, the airport was sinking more than 19 inches a year, but by 2008 that had dropped to 2.8 inches. By 2023, the sinking was down to 2.3 inches annually. Despite this progress, the airport remains at risk. Engineers warn that parts of the airport may fall below sea level by 2056 if subsidence continues. Climate change adds another layer of risk to the airport, already vulnerable to storm surges and seismic activity. In 2018, Typhoon Jebi underlined these dangers when it struck Osaka Bay, flooding the runway and forcing a two-week shutdown. High seas flooded one of its two runways, while strong winds sent a 2,500-tonne tanker slamming into the side of a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland. Some 5,000 passengers stranded at the airport were transported to the mainland by boat, according to the daily Japan Times. In response, authorities raised the seawall around the airport by an additional 2.7m to better withstand future flooding. While such engineering solutions implemented over the years have bought precious time, the battle against subsidence and rising seas is far from over for the airport. The bleak prediction from experts has sparked anger among some members of the Japanese engineering community. 'It's irresponsible,' Professor Yoichi Watabe from Hokkaido University's engineering faculty told The New York Times in 2018. Prof Watabe, who has studied the Kansai airport's issues extensively, however did acknowledge that the forecast wasn't completely without merit. Still, he pointed out that the predictions assumed Japan 'will simply stand by and watch it sink without taking action'. He added: 'We definitely will not.'
The Star
22-06-2025
- The Star
Japan's Kansai Airport sinking due to subsidence issues
OSAKA: Kansai International Airport faces ongoing subsidence problems as it sinks into Osaka Bay, prompting urgent measures by Japan to address and prevent further damage. Kansai International Airport in Japan has been recognised as the world's best airport for luggage handling in 2024, maintaining a flawless record of no lost luggage for more than a decade. It has also won international accolades for its architectural design, efficiency and staff. However, this acclaimed airport is now 'sinking'. Built on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, Kansai International Airport is one of Japan's largest construction and engineering projects. The airport consists of two islands, with one covering 1,290ha and the other spanning 2,668ha. It was constructed to alleviate congestion at the nearby Osaka International Airport and opened its doors on Sept 4, 1994. Since then, the airport has increasingly served both domestic and international flights, becoming a vital aviation hub. In 2024, approximately 30.6 million passengers passed through its terminals, travelling to 91 cities across 25 countries. While these figures are impressive, it is hard to ignore the fact that the airport has sunk deeper into the soft clay beneath Osaka Bay than engineers had initially predicted and continuing to sink every year. Several factors contribute to the gradual sinking of the airport. These include the weight of the land and infrastructure, as well as the method used to construct the island by dredging millions of tonnes of earth and stone and dumping it onto the seabed. This process did not allow the soft sediment to compact sufficiently before construction began, making the island prone to settling over time. A further major cause is the loose clay and sediment layer beneath the airport, which sinks under weight. As a result, the airport has been subsiding faster than engineers originally calculated. According to a report from Kansai Airport's service provider, the surface level of the airport's first island is now 3.84m lower than when it opened in 1994. Since the commencement of landfill construction, the airport has experienced an average subsidence of 13.66m. The latest data released in December 2024 indicated that the average subsidence measured at 17 points on the artificial island was only 6cm. However, the situation on the second island is slightly worse, with the ground surface having sunk by 17.47m since construction began. The average subsidence across 54 measurement points on this island in 2024 was 21cm. These islands were built on a 20m thick layer of clay and sediment that functions like a sponge. Despite the installation of 2.2 million vertical drainage pipes to solidify the clay and limit shrinkage, the weight of the landfill, including more than 200 million cubic m of debris, has caused the clay to compress more than anticipated. To address this issue, a seawall costing more than US$150 million (S$193 million) was constructed around the islands. Nonetheless, engineers still predict that, in the next 30 years, parts of the airport may fall below sea level. In September 2018, Typhoon Jebi, the most powerful typhoon to strike Japan in 25 years, caused US$13 billion in damage and claimed 21 lives across the Pacific. The typhoon led to the temporary closure of Kansai Airport due to flooding. This event highlighted significant design flaws, as critical infrastructure, including the disaster response centre and power stations essential for supplying electricity to the facilities, were located underground and completely flooded. About 5,000 people were stranded at the airport without power for more than 24 hours. According to a statement on the service provider's website, the airport's subsidence rate is currently decreasing, and efforts are being made to monitor the airport's foundations while collecting data on the subsidence. Academic experts have also been consulted for advice. Emeritus Professor Hiro Ishikawa from Urban Planning and Policy at Meiji University, said the subsidence of the island remains at an acceptable level and is considered a valuable learning experience for similar man-made island projects. Prof Ishikawa told This Week in Asia: 'When we needed to build a second airport for Osaka, we had to decide to build offshore because there were few viable options. Land space on the mainland was very limited for large construction projects, and residents in nearby areas might be affected by noise and night flights.' Kansai Airport has provided valuable lessons for the development of other airports, including Chubu Centrair International Airport, which was also built on an artificial island off the coast of Nagoya. Chubu Centrair, which opened in 2005 and is smaller than Kansai, covering only around 1,189ha, was ranked the best regional airport in the world for the 11th consecutive year in 2024 by the Skytrax industry organisation. It has reported fewer subsidence issues compared with Kansai. Prof Ishikawa explained the engineering principles behind Kansai Airport: 'We knew from the start that the airport would subside, and we considered the various impacts in the design. However, there were still mistakes, such as placing emergency facilities in underground areas prone to flooding.' Currently, the airport's subsidence rate is less than 10cm per year, but the situation is gradually improving and manageable. Subsidence in urban areas is not a new phenomenon and occurs worldwide, such as in Venice and Manhattan, due to the weight of buildings. At present, the airport is undertaking a major US$609 million renovation project aimed at upgrading facilities and increasing operational capacity, despite the ongoing challenge of sinking deeper into Osaka Bay. - The Nation/ANN
