Japan - Research Project about the Japanese Airline Industry

Hi all,

I'm not sure where else to put this because it is such an obscure request. I am currently a senior in high school and am participating in an online program sponsored by Stanford University called the Reischauer Scholars Program. The program selects 25 high school students from around the United States to learn about U.S-Japan relations, Japanese history, Japanese culture, etc. The program is wrapping up now, though, and each student has to write a 10-13 page research paper on any topic of their choice. While I rarely post on Flyertalk, I spend hours a day reading forums and blogs and decided it would be an interesting and fun project to write about the Japanese Airline Industry. I am having trouble, though, finding sources and information besides Wikipedia and some short excerpts online and was wondering if any of you guys know of any sources or have any information about the Japanese Airline Industry. Thanks!

Let me move this along to the Japan forum. We have a core of exceptionally knowledgeable and helpful posters there, many of whom make their home in Japan. Perhaps they can help.

If after a few days that hasn't been helpful, report your own post using the red triangle. We can move it on to Travel buzz (because it really doesn't have anything to do with earning miles, the core purpose or Miles Buzz.)

Congratulations on being a Reischauer Scholar. Best wishes in your studies.

Carol
Community Director

You might want to PM Jalpak who posts a lot on the JAL forum. He might know something. I think you need to be a little more specific though. What kind of information are you looking for?

The websites of ANA and JAL have some information on their history.

I think I'll spend a bit of time talking about the history of ANA and JAL and then focus on the deregulation of JAL and the expansion of ANA during the mid-eighties.

You might want to PM Jalpak who posts a lot on the JAL forum. He might know something. I think you need to be a little more specific though. What kind of information are you looking for?

I think I'll spend a bit of time talking about the history of ANA and JAL and then focus on the deregulation of JAL and the expansion of ANA during the mid-eighties.

There are people who are more knowledgable than me on these topics. I am not old enough to remember any of these :p

Gberg:

Unless you read Japanese well, I think you will find that sources are few and far between. I can think of a few areas that might be doable completely in English, though:

(1) Early history of JAL. JAL was originally set up with assistance from Northwest, so there are probably memoirs out there with interesting details.

(2) Airport disputes. The huge civil uprisings in the 70's surrounding the construction of NRT and expansion of ITM are both pretty well documented in English books and journals, and are interesting from the perspective of showing that Japan is not always a conformist society. This is probably what I would write about if I were in your shoes.

(3) Recent rise of LCCs. Well documented in the English business press, and probably the easiest paper to write based on online research.

[edited to add] IIRC there is also some potentially interesting prewar history -- Charles Lindbergh was hired by Pan Am in the 30's to figure out how to do transpacific flights through Japan to China, following the same Alaskan routing used today, but the deteriorating political situation forced Pan Am to route through Hawaii and the Philippines instead.