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132-473: Kansai International Airport ( Japanese : 関西国際空港 , romanized :  Kansai Kokusai Kūkō ), commonly known as Kankū ( Japanese : 関空 ) ( IATA : KIX , ICAO : RJBB ), 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 ( 関空島 ) ) in

264-428: A low pressure centre , a pre-existing low level focus or disturbance, and a low vertical wind shear . Although the majority of storms form between June and November, a few storms may occur between December and May (although tropical cyclone formation is very rare during that time). On average, the northwestern Pacific features the most numerous and intense tropical cyclones globally. Like other basins, they are steered by

396-574: A severe tropical storm . Once the system's maximum sustained winds reach wind speeds of 64 knots (74 mph; 119 km/h), the JMA will designate the tropical cyclone as a typhoon —the highest category on its scale. Since 2009 the Hong Kong Observatory has divided typhoons into three different classifications: typhoon , severe typhoon and super typhoon . A typhoon has wind speed of 64–79 knots (73–91 mph; 118–149 km/h),

528-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down

660-524: A combined road and railroad bridge, to Rinku Town and the mainland. The lower level of the bridge is used by two railroad operators: JR West and Nankai Electric Railway . JR West operates the Haruka limited express train services from Kansai Airport Station to Tennōji , Ōsaka , Shin-Ōsaka , and Kyoto Station , with Kansai Airport Rapid  [ ja ] services available from Kansai Airport Station to Ōsaka , Kyōbashi and several stations on

792-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )

924-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as

1056-606: A hotel complex. The airport is only accessible from the Sky Gate Bridge R, a part of Kansai Airport Expressway. The expressway immediately connects to Hanshin Expressways Route 5, "Wangan Route", and Hanwa Expressway . In July 2007, high-speed ferry service began. OM Kobe operates "Bay Shuttle" between Kobe Airport and KIX. The journey takes about thirty minutes. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] )

1188-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it

1320-453: A low level feature with sufficient vorticity and convergence is required to begin tropical cyclogenesis. About 85 to 90 percent of Pacific typhoons form within the monsoon trough . Even with perfect upper-level conditions and the required atmospheric instability, the lack of a surface focus will prevent the development of organized convection and a surface low. Vertical wind shear of less than 10 m/s (20 kn, 33 ft/s) between

1452-447: A priority. Thus, in 2003, believing that the sinking problem was almost over, the airport operators started to construct a 4,000 m (13,000 ft) second runway and terminal. The second runway opened on 2 August 2007, but with the originally planned terminal portion postponed. This lowered the project cost to JPY¥ 910 billion (approx. US$ 8 billion), saving ¥650 billion from the first estimate. The additional runway development, which

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1584-542: A public tender to sell the operating rights for Kansai and Itami Airport in May 2015. Orix and Vinci Airports were the sole bidders for the 45-year contract, at a price of around $ 18 billion. The new operating company, Kansai Airports , took over on 1 April 2016. It is 80% owned by Orix and Vinci, with the remaining 20% owned by Kansai-based enterprises such as Hankyu Hanshin Holdings and Panasonic . On 4 September 2018,

1716-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),

1848-513: A severe typhoon has winds of at least 80 knots (92 mph; 150 km/h), and a super typhoon has winds of at least 100 knots (120 mph; 190 km/h). The United States ' Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) unofficially classifies typhoons with wind speeds of at least 130 knots (67 m/s; 150 mph; 241 km/h)—the equivalent of a strong Category 4 storm in the Saffir-Simpson scale —as super typhoons . However,

1980-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate

2112-476: A sophisticated people mover system called the Wing Shuttle , which moves passengers from one end of the pier to the other. The terminal's roof is shaped like an airfoil . This shape is used to promote air circulation through the building: giant air conditioning ducts blow air upwards at one side of the terminal, circulate the air across the curvature of the ceiling, and collect the air through intakes at

2244-773: A third runway (06C/24C) with a length of 3,500 m (11,483 ft), a new cargo terminal and expanding the airport size to 13 km (5 sq mi). However, the Japanese government has currently postponed these plans for economic reasons. Since July 2008, Osaka Prefecture governor Toru Hashimoto has been a vocal critic of Itami Airport , arguing that the Chuo Shinkansen maglev line will make much of its domestic role irrelevant, and that its domestic functions should be transferred to Kansai Airport in conjunction with upgraded high-speed access to Kansai from central Osaka. In 2009, Hashimoto also publicly proposed moving

2376-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of

2508-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of

2640-456: Is 18 metres (59 ft) on top of 20 metres (66 ft) of soft Holocene clay which holds 70% water. A million sand drains were built into the clay to remove water and solidify the clay. Construction started in 1987. The sea wall was finished in 1989 (made of rock and 48,000 tetrapods ). Three mountains were excavated for 21 million cubic metres (27 million cubic yards), and 180 million cubic metres (240 million cubic yards)

2772-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,

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2904-687: Is also the North Pacific hub for the FedEx Express , which obtained its fifth-right under the 1998 U.S. and Japan air agreement and established the Hub in 2014. In 2019, 31.9 million passengers used the airport, making it the third busiest in Japan . The freight volume was 802,162 tonnes total: 757,414 t international (18th in the world) and 44,748 t domestic. The 4,000 m × 60 m (13,120 ft × 200 ft) second runway

3036-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing

3168-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number

3300-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider

3432-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto

3564-439: Is closer to Osaka. It consists of two terminals: Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Terminal 1, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano , is the longest airport terminal in the world with a length of 1.7 km ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 16  mi). The airport serves as an international hub for All Nippon Airways , Japan Airlines , and Nippon Cargo Airlines and as a hub for Peach , the first international low-cost carrier in Japan. It

3696-523: Is considered the minimum to maintain the special mesocyclone that is the tropical cyclone. These warm waters are needed to maintain the warm core that fuels tropical systems. A minimum distance of 500 km (300 mi) from the equator is normally needed for tropical cyclogenesis. Whether it be a depression in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) or monsoon trough , a broad surface front , or an outflow boundary ,

3828-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to

3960-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through

4092-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey

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4224-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of

4356-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and

4488-665: Is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as

4620-447: Is the term used for a tropical system that has wind speeds not exceeding 33 knots (38 mph; 61 km/h). A tropical depression is upgraded to a tropical storm should its sustained wind speeds exceed 34 knots (39 mph; 63 km/h). Tropical storms also receive official names from RSMC Tokyo. Should the storm intensify further and reach sustained wind speeds of 48 knots (55 mph; 89 km/h) then it will be classified as

4752-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and

4884-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have

5016-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns

5148-563: The Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered

5280-488: The Greater Tokyo Area . By flying to Kansai from Haneda Airport and connecting to international flights there, travelers can save the additional time required to get to Narita: up to one and a half hours for many residents of Kanagawa Prefecture and southern Tokyo. The airport was at its limit during peak times, owing especially to freight flights, so a portion of Phase II expansion—the second runway—was made

5412-462: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in

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5544-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than

5676-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of

5808-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to

5940-440: The subtropical ridge towards the west or northwest, with some systems recurving near and east of Japan . The Philippines receive the brunt of the landfalls, with China and Japan being less often impacted. However, some of the deadliest typhoons in history have struck China. Southern China has the longest record of typhoon impacts for the region, with a thousand-year sample via documents within their archives. Taiwan has received

6072-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),

6204-544: The 1660s and 1670s. The highest reliably-estimated maximum sustained winds on record for a typhoon was that of Typhoon Haiyan at 314 km/h (195 mph) shortly before its landfall in the central Philippines on November 8, 2013. The most intense storm based on minimum pressure was Typhoon Tip in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in 1979, which reached a minimum pressure of 870 hectopascals (26 inHg) and maximum sustained wind speeds of 165 knots (85 m/s, 190 mph, 310 km/h). The deadliest typhoon of

6336-403: The 1960s, when the Kansai region was rapidly losing trade to Tokyo, planners proposed a new airport near Kobe and Osaka. The city's original international airport, Itami Airport , located in the densely populated suburbs of Itami and Toyonaka , was surrounded by buildings; it could not be expanded, and many of its neighbours had filed complaints because of noise pollution problems. After

6468-831: The 20th century was Typhoon Nina , which killed nearly 100,000 in China in 1975 due to a flood that caused 12 reservoirs to fail. After Typhoon Morakot landed in Taiwan at midnight on August 8, 2009, almost the entire southern region of Taiwan ( Chiayi County / Chiayi City , Tainan County / Tainan City (now merged as Tainan), Kaohsiung County / Kaohsiung City (now merged as Kaohsiung), and Pingtung County ) and parts of Taitung County and Nantou County were flooded by record-breaking heavy rain. The rainfall in Pingtung County reached 2,327 millimeters (91.6 in), breaking all rainfall records of any single place in Taiwan induced by

6600-573: The Ancient Greek mythological creature Typhôn . In French typhon was attested as storm in 1504. Portuguese traveler Fernão Mendes Pinto referred to a tufão in his memoir published in 1614. The earliest form in English was "touffon" (1588), later as touffon, tuffon, tufon, tuffin, tuffoon, tayfun, tiffoon, typhawn. A tropical depression is the lowest category that the Japan Meteorological Agency uses and

6732-460: The English word typhoon traced to the Cantonese pronunciation of 颱風 [tʰɔi fuŋ] (correspond to Mandarin [tʰaɪ fɤŋ] ), in turn the Cantonese word traced to Arabic. This claim contradicts the fact that the Cantonese term for typhoon was 風舊 [fuŋ kɐu] before the national promotion of 颱風 . 風舊 (meaning "winds which long last") was first attested in 280, being

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6864-544: The Itami and Kansai airport authorities was completed in July 2012. Shortly following the merger, Kansai Airport announced a 5% reduction in landing fees effective October 2012, with additional reductions during overnight hours when the airport is underutilized, and further discounts planned for the future, including subsidies for new airlines and routes. As of October 2012 these moves were intended to bring Kansai's fees closer to

6996-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,

7128-542: The Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The etymology of typhoon is either Chinese or Persian-Hindustani origin. Typhoon may trace to 風癡 (meaning "winds which long last"), first attested in 1124 in China. It was pronounced as [hɔŋ tsʰi] in Min Chinese at the time, but later evolved to [hɔŋ tʰai]. New characters 風颱 were created to match the sound, no later than 1566. The word

7260-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently

7392-543: The Philippines, the most active season since 1945 for tropical cyclone strikes was 1993 , when nineteen tropical cyclones moved through the country. There was only one tropical cyclone that moved through the Philippines in 1958 . The 2004 Pacific typhoon season was the busiest for Okinawa since 1957. Within Guangdong in southern China, during the past thousand years, the most active decades for typhoon strikes were

7524-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand

7656-596: The United States who have territories directly affected by typhoons. The submitted names are arranged into a list, the names on the list will be used from up to down, from left to right. When all names on the list are used, it will start again from the left-top corner. When a typhoon causes damage in a region, the affected region can request for retiring the name in the next session of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee. A new name will be decided by

7788-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which

7920-540: The aircraft. Terminal 2 is not directly connected to Terminal 1 or to Kansai Airport Station . Free shuttle buses run between the two terminals, and between Terminal 2 and the railway and ferry stations. It is also possible to walk between the terminals through the KIX Sora Park, a four-hectare park located adjacent to Terminal 2. Kansai International Airport is connected only by the Sky Gate Bridge R ,

8052-499: The airport was expected to increase competition between Japan's international airports. Despite this, passenger totals were up 11% in 2005 over 2004, and international passengers increased to 3.06 million in 2006, up 10% over 2005. Adding to the competition were the opening of Kobe Airport, less than 25 km (16 mi) away, in 2006 and the lengthening of the runway at Tokushima Airport in Shikoku in 2007. The main rationale behind

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8184-487: The airport was hit by Typhoon Jebi . The airport had to pause operations after seawater surges inundated the island; runways were hit, and the water reached up to the engines of some aircraft. The situation was further exacerbated when a large tanker crashed into the bridge that links the airport to the mainland, effectively stranding the people remaining at the airport. All flights at the airport were canceled until 6 September, at which date Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced

8316-471: The airport would partially resume domestic operations. Train services to the airport resumed from 18 September 2018 after repair works to the Kansai Airport Line and Nankai Airport Line were completed, and the airport resumed regular operations on 1 October 2018. Repairs to the damaged section of the Sky Gate Bridge R were finally completed on 8 April 2019, restoring traffic both to and from

8448-548: The area of Osaka Prefecture just enough so that it is no longer the smallest prefecture in Japan ( Kagawa Prefecture is now the smallest). The bidding and construction of the airport was a source of international trade friction during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone responded to American concerns, particularly from Senator Frank Murkowski , that bids would be rigged in Japanese companies' favour by providing special offices for prospective international contractors, which ultimately did little to ease

8580-411: The construction of Hong Kong International Airport . In 1991, the terminal construction commenced. To compensate for the sinking of the island, adjustable columns were designed to support the terminal building. These are extended by inserting thick metal plates at their bases. Government officials proposed reducing the length of the terminal to cut costs, but architect Renzo Piano insisted on keeping

8712-480: The date line from the central Pacific retain their original name, but the designation of hurricane becomes typhoon. The most active Western Pacific typhoon season was in 1964 , when 39 storms of tropical storm strength formed. Only 15 seasons had 30 or more storms developing since reliable records began. The least activity seen in the northwest Pacific Ocean was during the 2010 Pacific typhoon season , when only 14 tropical storms and seven typhoons formed. In

8844-545: The early years of the airport's operation, excessive terminal rent and utility bills for on-site concessions also drove up operating costs: some estimates before opening held that a cup of coffee would have to cost US$ 10. Osaka business owners pressed the government to take a greater burden of the construction cost to keep the airport attractive to passengers and airlines. On 17 February 2005, Chubu Centrair International Airport opened in Nagoya , just east of Osaka. The opening of

8976-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there

9108-415: The expansions was to compete with Incheon International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport as a gateway to Asia, as Tokyo area airports were severely congested. Kansai saw a 5% year-on-year increase in international traffic in summer 2013, largely supported by low-cost carrier traffic to Taiwan and Southeast Asia overcoming a decrease in traffic to China and South Korea. The airport authority

9240-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure

9372-543: The functions of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Kansai Airport as a possible solution for the political crisis surrounding the base. In May 2011, the Diet of Japan passed legislation to form a new Kansai International Airport Corporation using the state's existing equity stake in Kansai Airport and its property holdings at Itami Airport. The move was aimed at offsetting Kansai Airport's debt burden. The merger of

9504-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had

9636-613: The glass in the windows remained intact. On 22 September 1998, the airport survived a typhoon with wind speeds over 60 m/s (130 mph). On 19 April 2001, the airport was one of ten structures given the "Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium" award by the American Society of Civil Engineers . As of 2008, the total cost of Kansai Airport was $ 20 billion including land reclamation, two runways , terminals, and facilities. Most additional costs were initially due to

9768-434: The island's sinking, caused by the soft soils of Osaka Bay, which was anticipated by designers. The sink rate fell from 50 cm (20 in) per year during 1994 to 7 cm (3 in) per year in 2008. Opened on 4 September 1994, the airport serves as a hub for several airlines such as All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, and Nippon Cargo Airlines. It is the international gateway for Japan's Kansai region , which contains

9900-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,

10032-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system

10164-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of

10296-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,

10428-565: The level of Narita International Airport , where landing fees were around 20% lower than Kansai's, and to improve competitiveness with other Asian hubs such as Incheon International Airport in South Korea. Since its formation, the new operating company has also made efforts toward international expansion, bidding for operating concessions at Yangon International Airport and Hanthawaddy International Airport in Myanmar . KIAC conducted

10560-433: The lower to middle levels of the troposphere , enough Coriolis force to develop a low pressure center, a pre-existing low level focus or disturbance, and low vertical wind shear. While these conditions are necessary for tropical cyclone formation, they do not guarantee that a tropical cyclone will form. Normally, an ocean temperature of 26.5 °C (79.7 °F) spanning through a depth of at least 50 metres (160 ft)

10692-517: The main Terminal 1. Peach requested that Terminal 2 have a simplified design in order to minimize operating costs. The terminal is a single-story building, thus eliminating the cost of elevators . Passageways to aircraft have no air conditioning. The terminal also has no jet bridges , having one boarding gate for domestic departures and one boarding gate for international departures. In case of rain, passengers are lent umbrellas to use as they walk to

10824-456: The mainland completely. The main KIX passenger terminal, Terminal 1, is a single four-storey building designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop ( Renzo Piano and Noriaki Okabe ), and has a gross floor space of 296,043 square metres (3,186,580 sq ft). As of 2018, at a total length of 1.7 km (1.1 mi) from end to end, Terminal 1 is the longest airport terminal in the world. It has

10956-417: The major cities of Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka. Other Kansai domestic flights fly from the older but more conveniently located Osaka International Airport in Itami, or from the newer Kobe Airport. The airport had been deeply in debt, losing $ 560 million in interest every year. Airlines had been kept away by high landing fees (about $ 7,500 for a Boeing 747 ), the second most expensive in the world after Narita's. In

11088-525: The maximum sustained wind speed measurements that the JTWC uses are based on a 1-minute averaging period, akin to the U.S.'s National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center . As a result, the JTWC's wind reports are higher than JMA's measurements, as the latter is based on a 10-minute averaging interval. There are six main requirements for tropical cyclogenesis: sufficiently warm sea surface temperatures, atmospheric instability, high humidity in

11220-673: The middle of Osaka Bay off the Honshu shore, 38 km (24 mi) southwest of Ōsaka Station , located within three municipalities, including Izumisano (north), Sennan (south), and Tajiri (central), in Osaka Prefecture . The airport's first airport island covers approximately 510 hectares (1,260 acres) and the second covers approximately 545 hectares (1,347 acres), for a total of 1,055 hectares (2,607 acres). Kansai opened on 4 September 1994 to relieve overcrowding at Osaka International Airport , also called Itami Airport, which

11352-516: The most active on Earth. Pacific typhoons have formed year-round, with peak months from August to October. The peak months correspond to that of the Atlantic hurricane seasons . Along with a high storm frequency, this basin also features the most globally intense storms on record. One of the most recent busy seasons was 2013 . Tropical cyclones form in any month of the year across the northwest Pacific Ocean and concentrate around June and November in

11484-567: The northern Indian Ocean. The area just northeast of the Philippines is the most active place on Earth for tropical cyclones to exist. Across the Philippines themselves, activity reaches a minimum in February, before increasing steadily through June and spiking from July through October, with September being the most active month for tropical cyclones across the archipelago . Activity falls off significantly in November, although Typhoon Haiyan ,

11616-483: The northern and southern arrival routes of Terminal 1, there are decorations of Nintendo characters like Mario , Luigi , Princess Peach , and others welcoming arriving passengers. Terminal 2 is a low-cost carrier (LCC) terminal designed to attract more LCCs by providing lower landing fees than Terminal 1. It is exclusively occupied by Peach , Spring Airlines , and Jeju Air . Other LCCs serving Kansai, such as Jetstar Airways , Jetstar Japan , and Cebu Pacific , use

11748-406: The northwestern Pacific, there are no official typhoon seasons as tropical cyclones form throughout the year. Like any tropical cyclone, there are several main requirements for typhoon formation and development. It must be in sufficiently warm sea surface temperatures , atmospheric instability, high humidity in the lower-to-middle levels of the troposphere , have enough Coriolis effect to develop

11880-474: The ocean surface and the tropopause is required for tropical cyclone development. Typically with Pacific typhoons, there are two jets of outflow : one to the north ahead of an upper trough in the westerlies , and a second towards the equator. In general, the westerly wind increases associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation lead to increased tropical cyclogenesis in all tropical cyclone basins . As

12012-607: The oldest Chinese term for typhoon. Not one Chinese historical record links 颱風 to an Arabic or foreign origin. On the other hand, Chinese records consistently assert foreigners refer typhoon as "black wind". "Black wind" eventually enters the vocabulary of Jin Chinese as 黑老風 [xəʔ lo fəŋ] . Alternatively, some dictionaries propose that typhoon derived from (طوفان) tūfān , meaning storm in Persian and Hindustani . The root of (طوفان) tūfān possibly traces to

12144-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by

12276-477: The opening of the Naniwasuji Line in 2031. Kansai Airport Transportation Enterprise and other bus operators offer scheduled express bus services, called "Airport Limousines", for Kansai International Airport. Two six storey parking structures, called P1 and P2, are located above a railroad terminal station, while the other two level parking facilities, called P3 and P4, are situated next to "Aeroplaza",

12408-419: The oscillation propagates from west to east, it leads to an eastward march in tropical cyclogenesis with time during that hemisphere's summer season. On average, twice per year twin tropical cyclones will form in the western Pacific Ocean, near the 5th parallel north and the 5th parallel south , along the same meridian, or line of longitude. There is an inverse relationship between tropical cyclone activity in

12540-419: The other side. Mobiles are suspended in the ticketing hall to take advantage of the flowing air. The ticketing hall overlooks the international departures concourse, and the two are separated by a glass partition. During Kansai's early days, visitors were known to throw objects over the partition to friends in the corridor below. The partition was eventually modified to halt this practice. On 23 June 2017, at

12672-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with

12804-438: The participation of foreign contractors in the bidding process. Later, foreign airlines complained that two-thirds of the departure hall counter space had been allocated to Japanese carriers, disproportionately to the actual carriage of passengers through the airport. The island had been predicted to sink 5.7 m (18 ft 8 in) by the most optimistic estimate as the weight of the material used for construction compressed

12936-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,

13068-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as

13200-410: The protests surrounding New Tokyo International Airport (now Narita International Airport ), which was built with expropriated land in a rural part of Chiba Prefecture , planners decided to build the airport offshore. The new airport was part of a number of new developments to revitalize Osaka, which had been losing economic and cultural ground to Tokyo for most of the century. Initially, the airport

13332-434: The region whose name was retired. Unlike tropical cyclones in other parts of the world, typhoons are not named after people. Instead, they generally refer to animals, flowers, astrological signs, and a few personal names. However, Philippines (PAGASA) retains its own naming list, which consists of both human names and other objects. Japan and some other East Asian countries also assign numbers to typhoons. Storms that cross

13464-596: The responsibility for issuing warnings for land areas about tropical cyclones affecting their country, such as the Joint Typhoon Warning Center for United States agencies, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) for interests in the island archipelago nation, and the Hong Kong Observatory for storms that come close enough to cause the issuance of warning signals . The list of names consists of entries from 14 southeast and east Asian nations and regions and

13596-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning

13728-458: The sea surface temperature and circulation features following a near-10-year frequency. Most tropical cyclones form on the side of the subtropical ridge closer to the equator, then move poleward past the ridge axis before recurving north and northeast into the main belt of the westerlies . Most typhoons form in a region in the northwest Pacific known as typhoon alley, where the planet's most powerful tropical cyclones most frequently develop. When

13860-514: The seabed silts. However, by 1999, the island had sunk 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in) – almost 50% more than predicted. The project became the most expensive civil works project in modern history after twenty years of planning, three years of construction and US$ 15bn of investment. Much of what was learned went into the successful artificial islands in silt deposits for New Kitakyushu Airport , Kobe Airport , and Chubu Centrair International Airport . The lessons of Kansai Airport were also applied in

13992-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )

14124-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this

14256-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This

14388-572: The strongest Philippine typhoon on record, was a November typhoon. The most frequently impacted areas of the Philippines by tropical cyclones are northern and central Luzon and eastern Visayas . A ten-year average of satellite determined precipitation showed that at least 30 percent of the annual rainfall in the northern Philippines could be traced to tropical cyclones, while the southern islands receive less than 10 percent of their annual rainfall from tropical cyclones. The genesis and intensity of typhoons are also modulated by slow variation of

14520-582: The subtropical ridge position, shift westward across the western Pacific Ocean, which increases the landfall threat to China and greater intensity to Philippines . Those that form near the Marshall Islands find their way to Jeju Island , Korea. Typhoon paths follow three general directions. A rare few storms, like Hurricane John , were redesignated as typhoons as they originated in the Eastern/Central Pacific and moved into

14652-424: The subtropical ridge shifts due to El Niño , so will the preferred tropical cyclone tracks. Areas west of Japan and Korea tend to experience many fewer September–November tropical cyclone impacts during El Niño and neutral years. During El Niño years, the break in the subtropical ridge tends to lie near 130°E , which would favor the Japanese archipelago. During La Niña years, the formation of tropical cyclones, and

14784-469: The terminal at its full planned length. The airport was opened on 4 September 1994. On 17 January 1995, Japan was struck by the Great Hanshin earthquake , the epicenter of which was about 20 km (12 mi) away from KIX and killed 6,434 people on Japan's main island of Honshū . Its earthquake engineering , particularly the use of sliding joints, allowed the airport to emerge unscathed. Even

14916-401: The terminal's promotion space, a game experience area known as " Nintendo Check In" opened. In this game experience area, guests arriving at Terminal 1 can play Nintendo Switch games free of charge. There is a statue of Mario at the experience area, along with Super Mario Cappy caps from Super Mario Odyssey for passengers to take photos with. There also Amiibo figurines on display there. In

15048-552: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Pacific typhoon Within most of

15180-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,

15312-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of

15444-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It

15576-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending

15708-496: The way. Connecting train service to Wakayama is available at Hineno Station . Various connections, such as buses, subways, trams, and other railroads, are available at each station. Nankai operates the rapi:t , a limited express train service to Namba Station on the southern edge of downtown Osaka. Osaka Metro connections are available at Namba and Tengachaya Station . Rail connections to and from Kansai Airport are expected to further improve access to and from Umeda with

15840-532: The western Pacific basin and the North Atlantic basin, however. When one basin is active, the other is normally quiet, and vice versa. The main reason for this appears to be the phase of the Madden–Julian oscillation, or MJO, which is normally in opposite modes between the two basins at any given time. Nearly one-third of the world's tropical cyclones form within the western Pacific. This makes this basin

15972-469: The western Pacific. Within the Western Pacific, RSMC Tokyo-Typhoon Center , part of the Japan Meteorological Agency , has had the official warning responsibility for the whole of the Western Pacific since 1989, and the naming responsibility for systems of tropical storm strength or greater since 2000. However each National Meteorological and Hydrological Service within the western Pacific has

16104-593: The wettest known typhoon on record for the northwest Pacific tropical cyclone basins . However, Vietnam recognises its typhoon season as lasting from the beginning of June through to the end of November, with an average of four to six typhoons hitting the country annually. According to the statistics of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, from 1950 to 2022, the Northwest Pacific generated an average of 26.5 named tropical cyclones each year, of which an average of 16.6 reached typhoon standard or above as defined by

16236-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or

16368-513: Was allotted four billion yen in government support for fiscal year 2013, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport and the Ministry of Finance agreed to reduce this amount in stages through fiscal year 2015, although local governments in the Kansai region have pressed for continued subsidies. Kansai has been marketed as an alternative to Narita Airport for international travelers from

16500-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular

16632-680: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,

16764-610: Was introduced to Mandarin Chinese in the inverted Mandarin order 颱風 [tʰaɪ fɤŋ] , later picked up by foreign sailors to appear as typhoon. The usage of 颱風 was not dominant until Chu Coching , the head of meteorology of the national academy from 1929 to 1936, declared it to be the standard term. There were 29 alternative terms for typhoon recorded in a chronicle in 1762, now mostly replaced by 颱風 , although 風癡 or 風颱 continues to be used in Min Chinese - and Wu Chinese - speaking areas from Chaozhou , Guangdong to Taizhou , Zhejiang. Some English linguists proposed

16896-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )

17028-627: Was opened in time for the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka , has expanded the airport size to 10.5 square kilometres (2,600 acres). The second runway is used for landings and when there are incidents prohibiting takeoff from runway A. The new runway allowed the airport to start 24-hour operations in September 2007. A new terminal building opened in late 2012. There are additional plans for several new aprons,

17160-602: Was opened on 2 August 2007. As of June 2014, Kansai Airport has become an Asian hub, with 780 weekly flights to Asia and Australasia (including 119 freight), 59 weekly flights to Europe and the Middle East (5 freight), and 80 weekly flights to North America (42 freight). In 2020, Kansai was ranked the tenth-best airport in the world by Skytrax and received its awards for Best Airport Staff in Asia, World's Best Airport Staff, and World's Best Airport for Baggage Delivery. In

17292-514: Was planned to be built near Kobe, but the city of Kobe refused the plan, so the airport was moved to a more southerly location on Osaka Bay. There it could be open 24 hours per day, unlike its predecessor in the city. An artificial island, 4 km ( 2 + 1 ⁄ 2  mi) long and 2.5 km ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2  mi) wide, was proposed. Engineers needed to overcome the extremely high risks of earthquakes and typhoons (with storm surges of up to 3 m or 10 ft). The water depth

17424-404: Was used to construct island 1. Over three years, 10,000 workers using 80 ships took 10 million man-hours to complete the 30-or-40-metre (100 or 130 ft) layer of earth over the sea floor and inside the sea wall. In 1990, a three-kilometre (1.9 mi) bridge was completed to connect the island to the mainland at Rinku Town , at a cost of $ 1 billion. Completion of the artificial island increased

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