Originally Posted by YariGuy

For ANA, a lot of people say good things about redeeming via Air Canada Aeroplan. I want to caution against that. I saw award availability on ANA from HNL-HND in J. I transferred in 55k miles from Chase, and it turned out to be phantom inventory, unbookable. This was almost 6 months ago and my miles are still stuck in there.

For JAL, Alaska and AA are best, but you mentioned that you're not interested in Alaska. Maybe you should look into Bilt (I know I mentioned it before that it might not be useful in Japan but might be worth considering after all). It transfers directly to JAL. I was able to use Bilt points to transfer to JAL to redeem 2 HNL-NGO tickets in J for 43k miles each. On Alaska (and AA?) this costs 60k. The middle tier card earns 3x for restaurants and costs $95. The bottom tier is free but earns 1X only.

BTW you went to Waseda?