Naha International Airport — Naha, Japan

Naha International Airport, coded OKA, sits at the southern tip of Okinawa's main island, gateway to a subtropical Ryukyu island chain that endured some of the most brutal fighting of the Pacific War during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa before later hosting a long-running American military presence that still shapes local politics today. Civilian and Japan Air Self-Defense Force operations share the airport's runway complex, which expanded to two parallel runways around 2020 to handle growing traffic from mainland Japan and increasingly from South Korea, China, and Taiwan, whose travelers come for Okinawa's beaches and distinct Ryukyuan culture. Shuri Castle, the restored former seat of the independent Ryukyu Kingdom that governed the islands before Japanese annexation in the 19th century, ranks among the top draws for visitors arriving through OKA. The airport anchors an island economy now built overwhelmingly around tourism.