Airport workers occasionally remove stray cats and racoon dogs from the runway but turtle sightings are rare.
The turtle, which weighs just over 2kg, was seen moving slowly along the tarmac at Narita international airport near Tokyo on Friday morning, prompting a pilot preparing for takeoff to contact air traffic control.
Staff removed the animal with a net and checked the 4,000-metre runway for other foreign objects, causing a 15-minute delay to five flights, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.
They included an All-Nippon Airways Airbus A380 whose fuselage is decorated with light and dark blue images of sea turtles, an embellishment that debuted in July last year to celebrate the carrier’s service to Hawaii, where the animals are regarded as sacred.
While airport workers are occasionally called on to remove stray cats, racoon dogs and rabbits from the runway, turtle sightings are extremely rare, the Mainichi said.
Narita officials believe the creature may have come from the airport’s retention pond, located about 100 metres from the runway, the newspaper added.