The U.S. Military Dominates Japanese Sky; U.S. Military and Modern Colonialism #4

It has been nearly 79 years since World War II ended. Still, the U.S. military treats the Japanese airspace as a U.S. possession. Even now, the U.S. military occupies the Japanese sky.

The Yokota air base’s control tower

Japan accepts the most significant U.S. overseas military in the world. Seventy percent of the U.S. military bases in Japan are concentrated in Okinawa. Still, several extensive U.S. forces air bases are densely located in Tokyo and surrounding areas and the headquarters is in the Yokota air base in Tokyo. Thus, the U.S. military at Yokota Air Base has air traffic control (ATC) of its surrounding vast airspace, called the Yokota Radar Approach Control (Yokota RAPCON).

ATC is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who give directions and information to aircraft to prevent collisions and organize traffic flow in the air.