Achieving JL sapphire even once allows you to sign up as part of Jal Global Club, which basically gives you OW Sapphire status for as long as you keep that membership alive, so a quasi lifetime status. For people inside Japan this means signing up for JL credit card and paying the annual due, while for people overseas they'll just deduct a few thousand miles p.a from your JMB mileage balance. That's how we got so many OW S members in Japan!