Hiroshi Nohara, 40, arrived in Mexico City from Tokyo on September 2 and was to transfer flights at Benito Juarez International Airport on his way to Brazil, but in a tale reminiscent of The Terminal, a movie in which Tom Hanks is stranded at New York's JFK Airport after arriving from Eastern Europe, Nohara decided to remain in the airport.
He has refused to explain his reasons for staying and became something of a local celebrity and tourist attraction, signing autographs and giving interviews to the press.
According to media reports, Nohara left the building on Monday with a Japanese woman who had offered him a place to sleep.
Foreigners with a tourist visa are allowed to remain in Mexico for up to 180 days. Until this week, however, the Japanese never once left the building, spending almost four months living on fast food and hamburgers and sleeping on the floor.
Mexican authorities and the Japanese Embassy attempted several times to talk the tourist into returning home, but he refused, even though he had an open-ended return ticket.
Nohara's visa expires some time in 2009.
There are no laws in Mexico that ban passengers from remaining in airports.
Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport was built in 1928 and is the busiest in Latin America, serving over 25 million passengers annually.
