Arashi’s Jun Matsumoto (27), Masaki Aiba (27), and Satoshi Ohno (29) took part in Saturday’s ribbon cutting ceremony ahead of Haneda Airport’s newest international terminal, reports The Television.
Named as Japan’s tourism navigators by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism since April this year, the group have been taking part in various promotions to help get overseas guests interested in Japan.
Speaking at yesterday’s ceremony, the Arashi members congratulated officials on the new terminal’s opening.
“I feel incredibly honoured to have been invited to take part in this ceremony on this memorable day,” Ohno said.
“I think that if Haneda Airport changes, so will Japan, and that makes me excited. Our role as tourism navigators here might be small, but I want to work as hard as I can to encourage overseas visitors to come to Japan,” Matsumoto said.
While the new runway for the international terminal will not be open until October 21, Aiba talked about his experience on the runway when the Arashi Jet was allowed to make a special trip down it last week.
“I got to see and walk on the new runway with the other members the other day. People told us stories about how it was developed, and for the first time we realised that there were so many people involved in transforming Haneda Airport into an international aiport,” he said.
source – momoeedgewood
