Onohara Airfield

Military Decommissioning. The airfield was a military installation for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. It ceased all operations following the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II and the subsequent dissolution of the Japanese military. The site was never converted for public or private civilian aviation use.

The former airfield site is now the Honda R&D Tochigi Proving Ground (Automobile). In 1974, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. acquired the land and developed it into a massive, high-security automotive research and development center. The site is extensively used for testing new Honda and Acura vehicles and features numerous specialized test tracks, including a high-speed oval, handling courses, and various road surface simulations. The original airfield infrastructure has been entirely removed and replaced by the automotive facility.

Onohara Airfield was originally the Kumagaya Army Flight School's Onohara Branch School (熊谷陸軍飛行学校大野原分教場). Constructed around 1943-1944 during the height of World War II, its sole purpose was to serve as a training facility for new pilots of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. It played a role in Japan's late-war effort to rapidly increase its number of pilots. The airfield consisted of grass runways and basic facilities typical of a wartime training base and did not handle any commercial or general aviation traffic.

None. The site is a critical, privately-owned R&D facility for Honda, a major multinational corporation. The land is highly developed and integral to the company's global operations. There are no known plans, discussions, or prospects for converting the site back into an airfield.