Niigata Airport — Niigata, Japan

KIJ occupies a stretch of coastal plain in Niigata, a Sea of Japan port city famous nationwide for the quality of its rice and the sake breweries that depend on it. For years the airport carried a distinctive role among Japanese airports as a scheduled link to Russia's Far East, with flights to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok offering some of the shortest routes available between Japan and the Asian mainland, alongside connections to northeastern Chinese cities such as Harbin. Heavy winter snowfall shapes daily life across the region, a theme captured in Japanese literature describing the area as snow country, and the airport's ground crews routinely contend with clearing operations during the coldest months. Domestic flights link KIJ to Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo, supporting a regional economy built on rice farming, sake production, and manufacturing. The Shinano River, Japan's longest, empties into the sea near the city.