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is an airport on an artificial island in Ise Bay, Tokoname City in Aichi Prefecture, south of Nagoya in central Japan.〔 Centrair is classified as a first class airport and is the main international gateway for the Chūbu ("central") region of Japan. The name is an abbreviation of Central Japan International Airport, an alternate translation used in the English name of the airport's operating company, . Some 11,721,673 people used the airport in 2006, ranking 8th busiest in the nation, and 273,874 tons of cargo was moved in 2005. ==History== Chūbu is Japan's third off-shore airport, after Nagasaki Airport and Kansai International Airport, and is also the second airport built in Japan on a manmade island. There are currently 5 offshore airports in Japan, including Kobe Airport and Kitakyushu Airport. With much lobbying by local business groups such as Toyota, especially for 24-hour cargo flights, construction started August 2000, with a budget of JPY¥768 billion (€5.5 billion, US$7.3 billion), but through efficient management nearly ¥100 billion was saved.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Central Japan International Airport )〕 Penta-Ocean Construction was a major contractor.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Centrair Profile and History )〕 In addition to cost-cutting measures, a number of environmental protection measures had been taken after learning from Kansai International Airport. The artificial island itself was shaped like the rounded letter "D" so that sea currents inside the bay will flow freely. Its shores were partially constructed with natural rocks and sloped to aid sea lifeforms to set up colonies. During the construction a species of little tern occasionally came, so a part of it was selected and set aside to aid nesting. According to Japanese media sources, Kodo-kai, a Yakuza faction in the Yamaguchi-gumi group, earned an immense amount of money by being the sole supplier, via a front company called Samix, of dirt, rock, sand, and gravel for the airport construction project. Although several Samix executives were criminally indicted for racketeering, the prosecutions were later dropped. According to the sources, Kodo-kai had informants working within the Nagoya police who fed the organization inside information which allowed them to stay a step ahead of investigating authorities.〔''Sentaku Magazine'' (reprinted in the ''Japan Times''), "(Kodo-kai still raking in funds despite tougher yakuza laws )", 23 October 2015〕 When the airport opened on 17 February 2005, it took over almost all of the existing Nagoya Airport (now Nagoya Airfield)'s commercial flights, and relieved Tokyo and Kansai areas of cargo shipments. As a replacement for Nagoya Airport, it also inherited its IATA airport code NGO. The airport's opening anticipated the Expo 2005 in Aichi Prefecture. The airport is speculated to have some competition with Shizuoka Airport, which opened on 4 June 2009. Japan Airlines (JAL) was the first airline to land an aircraft at Centrair: A Boeing 767-300ER, carrying around 206 passengers on board a charter flight from Saipan to commemorate the opening of Centrair.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Feb 10, 2005 GOODBYE & AND THANK YOU KOMAKI AIRPORT )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chūbu Centrair International Airport」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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