TOKYO - At Narita Airport, a small repair counter in Terminal 1 has become a lifeline for travelers whose trips are suddenly derailed by broken suitcases. From tourists arriving with luggage damaged in transit to families rushing to check in before their flight, customers rely on the skilled hands of repairman and shop manager Kazuto Nakamura, known to many as the airport’s “master repairman.”
Requests pour in especially during the busy summer travel season. Some visitors bring suitcases used for over 20 years, while others rush in with brand-new luggage that refuses to open. Problems range from jammed locks and stuck handles to torn zippers and cracked wheels. In one case, a man spent 30 minutes trying every possible combination on his three-digit dial lock, only for Nakamura to open it in less than a minute by touch alone. Others have found their bags wouldn’t open simply because a cosmetic case was stuck inside.
Wheel trouble remains the most common issue. In just nine days of observation, Nakamura handled 93 repair requests, with most caused by degraded rubber cracking from long-term storage in humid conditions. Wheel fragments can often be found scattered across the airport floors. For one traveler heading to Canada, all four wheels had deteriorated at once after seven years in storage. Within 20 minutes, Nakamura replaced them all, allowing her to deliver souvenirs to friends abroad.
The work often requires improvisation. Without spare parts, Nakamura sometimes resorts to forceful yet effective temporary fixes, leaving customers relieved and grateful. In more serious cases, such as when luggage handles were welded in place, he proposed cutting and refitting the axles entirely. Even complex repairs were completed in under half an hour, ensuring travelers made their flights on time.
Travelers from around the world now seek out his counter. A Mexican family came after celebrating a birthday in Japan, a Korean family arrived immediately upon landing to fix a cracked wheel, and an Indonesian man trusted Japan’s workmanship enough to repair his bag before flying on to Bali. Some even travel hours from Tokyo solely to restore their cherished luggage.
Whether it is saving businessmen with minutes to spare before check-in or reviving a suitcase with two decades of memories, Narita’s master repairman has turned breakdowns into travel stories—and won the admiration of both Japanese and foreign visitors alike.
Source: FNN
