When you are travelling at around 5 to 6 miles a minute on a descent a couple of miles is very little.
No kidding! I'm glad you pointed that out on a Proffessional Pilots discussion board.
The original post is sensationalism. The headline was
Close shave in Japan which is why most of us looked here.
Then we see it is based on an azimuth assessment of a TCAS display and a 'stressed' heading 220.
Try AB123 Right turn now 90 degrees climb to. ..break break...CD321 Left turn now 90 degrees descend to ....!!! That's is the sort of thing you hear for a serious conflict.
Also if the traffic was five miles or more away it is a complete non-event. The original post said
within an estimated less than 5 miles
. Even if the TCAS was accurate if it was say 4.6nm is it a close shave?
I take your point about busy airspace but the thread title should have been ' Traffic sometimes heavy in low level Japanese airspace'.
