I recently went to Osaka on a business trip and took advantage of my break time to visit a nearby general aviation airport—Yao Airport (YAO Airport)—for some photography. Here is my report. Note: All photos in this article were taken by the author. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Yao Airport has the ICAO code RJOY and is located in Yao City, Osaka Prefecture. Yao Airport was founded in 1933 and converted to a military airport in 1939, known as Taisei Airport. In 1952, it was renamed Hanshin Airport, with a portion allocated for civilian use. In 1956, it was renamed Yao Airport, and in 1969, joint civil-military use began. Today, it is utilized by the Japan Self-Defense Forces, newspaper companies, fire departments, police agencies, private enterprises, and individual small aircraft owners. It is famous for general aviation.

Yao City is located in the southeast of Osaka City’s jurisdiction and was established as a city in 1948. It is a sister city to Jiading, Shanghai. It borders Osaka City’s Hirano-ku and Higashi-Osaka City. The terrain is flat throughout, with Mount Ikoma in the east serving as the boundary mountain with Nara Prefecture. I departed from downtown Osaka, took the subway to Tennoji Station, then transferred to the Tanimachi Line and rode it all the way to the final stop, Yao-Minami Station.

It was quite easy to find after leaving the station. After exiting the south gate of the station, I walked straight east for 15 minutes to get there.

From the map above, you can see this airport has two Runways. Runway 09/27 is 1,490×45 meters, and Runway 13/31 is 1,200×30 meters; naturally, there is no ILS. The two Runways intersect in the middle, so… Aside from the Tower, the most prominent structures within the airport are buildings belonging to civil aviation companies such as Asahi Airlines, Osaka Air, Kyoritsu Aviation Photo, Showa Aviation, and Daiichi Aviation. The aircraft parked on the Apron are almost all single-engine propeller planes. Traffic was very light on the day of my visit. Departures were using Runway 27, with several Cessnas constantly doing touch and gos; I estimate they were students learning to fly. There were also several JSDF armed helicopters training nearby, though they were a bit further away. After all, it is a small airport. There is a low fence just 20-30 meters from the Runway, so from the outside, you have a completely unobstructed view for photography. Besides myself, there were only a few old men watching the planes; I guess they are all local aviation enthusiasts.

Below are the photos.

Yao-Minami Station Building:

The Apron:

Yao VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) / DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) navigation station:

Asahi Airlines Cessna 172P, JA4173:

Nanki Airlines Cessna 208B, CARAVAN I, JA8893:

NOEVIR, Hawker Beechcraft 350 King Air, JA377N:

Hirata Gakuen, Cessna 172P Skyhawk II , JA4117:

Osaka Air, Cessna 172P, JA4040:

Privately owned Robinson R22 Beta, JA7971:

A group photo of the Japan Self-Defense Force’s armed helicopter (registration unknown) and an Asahi Airlines Cessna 172 JA4203:

Finally, a panorama of the airport. You can see the green mountain to the right is Mount Ikoma, and beyond the mountain lies Nara Prefecture.

End