Regarding the Oct. 16 article "Can Narita, Haneda (airports) live in harmony?": Clearly, Tokyo needs a 24-hour, international hub airport; it does not have one now. Japanese and foreign nationals alike in Japan must pay heavy fees to use Narita Airport, which is far from Tokyo and has many problems. Haneda was the original Tokyo airport and has not been shown the respect it deserves.

If Haneda operated 24 hours daily on full international status, money would rain on Tokyo. I think we should push the two airports into battle and see which one wants the status more. That's the true Japanese spirit. Why would the Japanese government want its people to continue to pay fees to an airport in South Korea just to go abroad in many cases? That's preposterous. If we leave from a Japanese airport, we should be able to fly anywhere. Japan needs to get on top of agreements with unsigned countries so we can start making a real dent in the debt owed on the airports instead of attacking the wallets of the Japanese people to help pay for them.

I wonder if the airport owners realize that the reason people do not want to use other local airports in Japan is that they have become too expensive. We're thinking about this all the wrong way. If the Japanese are to be strong together, then they should work together. That will bring prosperity to us all.

anthony samuels