The transport ministry punished an air traffic controller by cutting his salary by 10 percent for one month for nodding off while he was on duty at Naha airport and delaying flights as a result in September.
The 55-year-old traffic controller fell asleep and did not respond to calls from an incoming cargo plane and an outbound one in the early hours of Sept. 13, delaying both for up to 17 minutes, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said.
Meanwhile, the ministry also took disciplinary action against a 46-year-old official at the Tokyo air traffic control center who posted information about an unauthorized tour of the facility on the microblogging site Twitter and conducted one in July.