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Series ・ 10 parts

ANA and JAL: The Story of Japan's Skies

On the day of defeat, Japan's skies were closed off by GHQ. For seven years, every aircraft was grounded and engineers lost their wings. With the restoration of sovereignty, Japan Airlines rose into the sky again in 1951. Episode 1 traces the road to the birth of a national flag carrier.

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  1. 01 Japan's Skies, Reopened — The Postwar Revival of Aviation On the day of defeat, Japan's skies were closed off by GHQ. For seven years, every aircraft was grounded and engineers lost their wings. With the restoration of sovereignty, Japan Airlines rose into the sky again in 1951. Episode 1 traces the road to the birth of a national flag carrier.
  2. 02 Carrying the Rising Sun — The Growth of Japan Airlines In 1954, the first postwar international route crossed the Pacific. Jets, the jumbo jet, a network spreading across the world. As a semi-public, semi-private national flag carrier, Japan Airlines piled up glory—while also bearing the heavy mission of representing the nation. Episode 2 traces the path of that growth.
  3. 03 The Challenger ANA — The Birth of All Nippon Airways Born in 1952 as a small helicopter transport company, All Nippon Airways chased the national flag carrier JAL, built up its domestic network one flight at a time, rode the wave of jet aircraft, and rose to become one of two giants. A neutral, fact-based account of the challenger's story.
  4. 04 The 45/47 System — The Convoy of the Skies In the early 1970s, the state drew a single line across Japan's skies. JAL took international routes and domestic trunk lines, ANA took domestic routes and short-haul international, and Toa Domestic Airlines took local routes. The 45/47 system, called the aviation constitution, was a framework that chose stability over competition. A neutral account of its light and shadow.
  5. 05 Summer 1985, Osutaka — The Tragedy of JAL Flight 123 On August 12, 1985, a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 bound from Haneda crashed into the mountains of Gunma, and 520 people lost their lives. It remains one of the deadliest single-aircraft accidents in the world. With respect for the victims and the bereaved, this is a quiet account of the facts confirmed by the official investigation, and of how aviation safety has been protected ever since.
  6. 06 The Wind of Liberalization — Deregulation and Competition In 1985 the Ministry of Transport decided to review the 45/47 system, and the following year's report effectively abandoned the division of roles among the carriers. Through double and triple tracking, multiple companies entered a single route, and JAL moved toward full privatization. This is a fact-based portrait of Japan's skies in the late 1980s, turning from a convoy system toward competition.
  7. 07 Into the World's Skies — Globalization and Alliances From the 1990s into the 2000s, the winds of deregulation crossed borders. ANA joined Star Alliance, JAL joined Oneworld. In the age of codeshares and open skies, how did the two carriers try to survive the world's skies? A story of airline alliances where cooperation and competition intertwine.
  8. 08 The JAL Bankruptcy — The Day the Wings Were Lost In January 2010, the national flag carrier Japan Airlines files for corporate reorganization. A collapse said to be the largest of any operating company in the postwar era. The Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation, Kazuo Inamori, and Amoeba Management. From delisting to relisting, a neutral account of how a company that lost its wings managed to take flight once more.
  9. 09 The Age of ANA and the LCCs — The Democratization of the Skies While JAL claws its way back from bankruptcy, ANA grows in scale and rises to become Japan's largest airline. Around the same time, low-cost carriers such as Peach and Jetstar Japan appear in the skies, breaking down the wall of high fares. This chapter portrays an era in which the two giants and new entrants intersect, and air travel becomes something for the masses.
  10. 10 The Pandemic and the Future of the Skies In 2020, the skies themselves fell still. The COVID-19 crisis evaporated air demand and forced enormous losses on ANA and JAL. The struggle to protect jobs, a gradual recovery of demand, and a new mission of decarbonization. As the final chapter of the story of Japan's skies, it surveys where the two giants are headed, without rushing to an answer.