After four years of negotiations, the U.S. Departments of State and Transportation and the government of Japan have come to an agreement to liberalize restrictions on air services between the two countries. The modified agreement allows for unlimited charter flights between the two countries, except for at Tokyo airports, which are limited to 300 to 400 flights in 2008 and 500 in 2009, due to high amounts of air traffic there, a statement AFX News Service attributed to the U.S. embassy.
Under the agreement, airlines also can sell more services through alliances. Japan and the U.S. also agreed to set a date of summer 2008 to resume talks about further liberalizing the agreement. This is the first time since 1998 that the agreement between the two countries has been modified.