Okay - A little more digging on aa.com and I get it down to around 20 hours. A cursory check of prices for direct flights LAX - KIX in August gets me a RT fare of ~ $2,800 per person (there will be four of us travelling) in coach versus ~ $900 per person going LAX - NRT Not sure why such a discrepancy but hopefully I can get a lower fare to KIX. By the way, the direct flight LAX-PVG on China Eastern is pricing at $3,960 per per person in coach!