Bungo North Airfield

The closure was due to economic reasons. The airfield, officially an 'agricultural airstrip,' was part of a national program that proved to be financially unsustainable. It experienced chronically low usage rates, especially for its intended agricultural purposes, which resulted in significant financial deficits and a high maintenance cost burden for the local municipality (the former town of Asaji, now part of Bungo-ono city).

The site has been completely redeveloped and is no longer recognizable as an airfield. The former runway and surrounding area are now occupied by the Asaji Solar Power Plant, a large-scale photovoltaic power station that began commercial operation in March 2016. The layout of the solar panel arrays clearly follows the long, narrow footprint of the original runway.

The facility was officially known as the Asaji Agricultural Airstrip (朝地町農道離着陸場, Asaji-chō Nōdō Rityakuriku-jō). It opened in November 1993 with an 800-meter by 25-meter paved runway. It was one of several such airstrips built across rural Japan under a national project by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The goal was to revitalize rural areas by supporting agricultural aviation (e.g., crop dusting, transporting high-value produce) and providing infrastructure for regional transport. In practice, the airstrip was used more for general aviation, recreational flying, and by light aircraft clubs rather than for significant agricultural operations.

There are no plans or prospects for reopening the airfield. The land has been fundamentally repurposed for long-term industrial use as a solar power plant. Reverting the site to an airfield would require the decommissioning of this major energy infrastructure, making it economically and logistically infeasible.