WHBM

This one had a convoluted logic for me. From South America to Japan the longstanding only operator was Varig, in fact going right back to predecessor Panair's days with Constellations. Now I knew that Varig routed via Lima, where there is a surprisingly large Japanese diaspora, even the Peruvian president once, and a one-stop from there was on a 707 via Los Angeles. I guessed it was joint with JAL. The nonstop connection from Brasilia, a different carrier so not Varig, was thus to Lima, of the other Brazilian carriers Vasp I think was confined to domestics so Cruzeiro (merged with Varig a few years later) seemed a choice.

So, it's not Varig on the main run, but is a 707, and starting from Lima. Both Aero Peru and JAL had DC-8s at the time so from a different country again. And then I remembered that oddball Air France flight. Papeete in Tahiti was long a French UTA monopoly, from Los Angeles or the long way round from Paris via Asia. But someone at Air France attempted what UTA probably never guessed, a flight from Lima (already an Air France terminus from Paris) to Papeete and on to Tokyo. Japanese tourists to Tahiti; Japanese-Peru trade links; Air France sneaking into Tahiti; no competition. So it seemed like a good idea at the time. Probably only lasted a year or two. Eventually the Peru segment was given up and UTA took over Papeete to Tokyo.