Japan and the United States reportedly are planning to build a multibillion-dollar floating runway in the sea off Japan, to reduce the noise from U.S. jets' night-time exercises.
The Yomiuri Shimbun daily says the runway would be four kilometers offshore, near the U.S. Marine Corps' Iwakuni Air Station, 700 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. The so-called Iwakuni "Megafloat" would be in addition to another runway already being built about one kilometer offshore.
Sunday's editions of the newspaper say further details of the floating-runway proposal could emerge in October, when the two governments are due to issue an interim report on realignment of U.S. forces in Japan. Construction costs for the runway are expected to be up to $4.5 billion.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.