Japan Is Turning a Disaster-Struck Airport Into the World's First Pokémon Terminal
The Noto Satoyama Pokémon With You Airport opens this summer, and it’s as much a reconstruction project as a pop-culture destination.
Summary
- Noto Satoyama Airport in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, will reopen on July 7 as the “Noto Satoyama Pokémon With You Airport,” becoming the world’s first airport officially branded after the Pokémon franchise
- The activation runs through September 2029 and is a partnership between Ishikawa Prefecture and the Pokémon With You Foundation, a non-profit established in 2011 following Japan’s most devastating earthquake to support disaster-affected communities
- The terminal will house all 111 Flying-type Pokémon, a giant Pikachu atrium balloon, 3D monuments of Pikachu, Plusle and Minun, an original animated smartphone series, themed dining, exclusive merchandise, and Pokémon-wrapped sightseeing buses across the Noto Peninsula
The world’s first Pokémon-branded airport is officially set to open on July 7 in Noto, Japan. Noto Satoyama Airport in Ishikawa Prefecture will reopen as the Noto Satoyama Pokémon With You Airport — a collaboration between Ishikawa Prefecture and the Pokémon With You Foundation that transforms a regional transit hub into the centerpiece of one of Japan’s most ambitious post-earthquake recovery efforts.
The design language inside the terminal is thorough. All 111 Flying-type Pokémon, excluding regional variants and Mega forms, are distributed across the airport’s entrance, boarding bridges, walls, and signs, building a kind of interactive scavenger hunt that runs the entire length of the building. Anchoring the second floor, a giant Pikachu-and-airplane balloon floats above the central atrium, surrounded by Flying-types soaring overhead. The observation deck goes further still, staging an entire Pikachu countryside landscape with dozens of Pikachu figures arranged across a miniature satoyama scene, and even more Pokémon hidden throughout for fans willing to look.
But the details that carry the most weight are the ones tied directly to the Noto Peninsula’s 2024 earthquake. The first-floor arrivals lobby displays Akarui Mirai — or Bright Future — a large-scale artwork originally created in 2024 specifically to support Noto’s reconstruction. Pikachu, Plusle, and Minun, the characters central to that piece, have been turned into full 3D monuments welcoming travelers as they land. A new original artwork, Sky of Hope, featuring Pokémon flying through rainbow-filled skies, will appear across airport decorations, merchandise, and the Pokémon-wrapped buses operated by the Hokuriku Railroad Group that connect the airport to attractions across the peninsula, including a Pokémon footbath where Water-type favorites like Gyarados, Vaporeon, Psyduck, Poliwag, and Quaxly keep visitors company.
The airport also premieres an original animated series viewable via smartphone throughout the terminal. One confirmed episode, “Fly, Bagon!”, follows a Bagon dreaming of flight while training beneath a Salamence monument located inside the airport itself, a story of perseverance that lands differently given its setting.
That emotional register is the point. The Pokémon With You Foundation was established in 2011 in the wake of Japan’s 9.1-magnitude Tōhoku earthquake, the largest in the country’s history, with a mandate to bring comfort to communities shattered by natural disaster. The 2024 Noto earthquake, a 7.6-magnitude event that killed hundreds, injured thousands, and devastated the peninsula’s infrastructure, was exactly the kind of crisis the foundation was built for. The airport activation, running through 2029, represents its largest and most sustained intervention yet, using one of the world’s most recognizable franchises not as a marketing vehicle but as a genuine tool for regional revitalization.
Exclusive merchandise at the in-terminal Serendipity gift shop, including T-shirts, keychains, luggage tags, and suitcase belts, carries original artwork built around Flying-type Pokémon, rainbows, and themes of travel and hope. Restaurant Annon on the third floor rounds out the experience with Pokémon pancakes and themed drinks, served on an exclusive “Sky of Hope” placemat.
The Noto Satoyama Pokémon With You Airport opens July 7 in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, with the activation running through September 30, 2029.
