Japan-U.S. aviation talks ended Thursday in Washington with no tangible progress on a U.S. proposal to form an open-skies accord, Japanese officials said Friday in Tokyo.
The two-day working-level talks were the first between Japan and the administration of President George W. Bush.
During the talks, the U.S. side repeated its demand that Japan accept the open-skies policy to fully liberalize international flight operations, just as it did in the previous talks in Tokyo in November.
Japanese negotiators again rejected the proposal on the grounds that it would exclusively benefit major U.S. airlines.
The two sides were also divided on a Japanese request regarding use of the second runway at Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture, which is due to open in May 2002.
Japan has been asking Washington to urge U.S. airlines to move some of their operations from the existing runway to the shorter one, but U.S. officials said the matter is beyond the U.S. government's jurisdiction.
The United States also urged Japan to allow more international cargo flights to use Tokyo's Haneda airport. Japan rejected the request on the grounds that demand for passenger transport is strong now and should be the priority.
Although Haneda airport is effectively dedicated to domestic flights, Japan recently began allowing some international chartered flights to use the airport.