Japan, a nation having only 400,000 sq. km, and southwest - northeast stretch of only 1,600km for the 4 largest Japanese islands, but population of 100 million people, and GDP per capita of over US$20,000, is a very good market for domestic and international aviation. The high income of people means there is high demand for air travel, while the small size of the nation means short air route distance and hence low cost.

Because of very high domestic air traffic amount and the lack of competition, the 3 major airlines groups of Japan ANA (All Nippon Airways), JAL (Japan Airlines) and JAS (Japan Air System) (the latter 2 are now merged into the new JAL Group), can operate large aircrafts with lower frequency, rather than small aircraft, high frequency policy used in intra-Europe and USA domestic flights, thus greatly improve the operation efficiency. In fact Japan is the only nation that has B747-400 Domestic tailored for Japanese domestic air market.

Boeing B747-400 is a short range variant of B747-400, having no winglets, and range of only 2,800km, not only less than B747-100, but even shorter than most modern single aisles like B737 Classic! It can be configured to 568-seat configuration, with 24 First Class seat at lower deck nose position and Economy Class seats everywhere else, including the upper deck. This makes B747-400 Domestic the aircraft with most seats today.

Japan Airlines (JAL), the largest airline group of Japan and Asia, was founded in 1951. The Japan Airlines Law was erected on 1953-8-1, in which Japan Airlines becomes a government-owned company.

It opened its first overseas office in New York on 1953-12-9, and its first international route to San Francisco on 1954-2-2.

The Jet-Age began for JAL in 1960 with the delivery of the first of a mainstay fleet of DC-8, first being used on the San Francisco route and later flying a polar route to London-Heathrow and Copenhagen.

It introduced electronic seat reservation system since 1964-7-1, the first one in Asia.

It flew the first west bond round-the-world flight departed from Tokyo International Airport on 1967-3-6, and east bond route on March 7, completing the round-the-world route.

Its first B747 entered service on 1970-7-1, the first one in Asia.

Because of political changes in Taiwan in 1974, Japan Airlines Suspended Japan - Taiwan routes after flight 704 on 1974-4-21. JAL then set up a new airline Japan Asia Airways (JAA) to fly flights to Taiwan, with its first flight on 1975-9-15, and returned on 1975-10-14.

JAL gained its complete control since 1987-11-18, when the Japanese Government sold its remaining share on JAL. JAL has the uniforms of flight attendants and ground staffs changed since 1989-1-1, and its first aircraft with new livery debuted on 1989-5-29.

All JAL flights prior to 1985 were polar routes with a stop at Anchorage, Alaska, as JAL aircrafts were not permitted to fly over airspace of USSR. Japan and the Soviet Union negotiated an aviation agreement on 1985-2-9, that permitted JAL direct flights to Europe to fly through Soviet air space. This cut travel time to Europe by two and a half hours. Its last Polar route service to Europe via Anchorage, which started in June 1961, was operated on 1991-10-30.

The animated movie KURENAI NO BUTA (Porco Rosso) directed by Hayao Miyazaki was released in JAL flights on 1992-7-1, earlier than nationwide release. This was the movie industry's first in-flight premiere showing.

JAL has its first JAL Dream Express, with Mickey Mouse and friends painted on the airplane body, entered service on 1994-8-1, making it the 1st aircraft with cartoon livery among Asian carriers.

Today, it has over 40 international destinations (excluding codeshare flights), one of the largest among Asian carriers. It also has subsidiaries like Japan Asia Airways, which serves Japan - Taiwan routes, and Hong Kong - Taiwan routes, Japan TransOcean Air, which operates flights from Okinawa, a Japanese Island between Taiwan and Japan, and Japan Air Express, which flies connecting flights for Japan Air Lines' main services.

All Nippon began in 1952 as Japan Helicopter and Aeroplane Transport Company, thus giving its IATA code of NH (Nippon Helicopter). The airline began scheduled flights a year later. It changed its name to ANA since 1958, when JHATC merged with Far East Airlines.

It introduced Lockheed Tristar and then B747SR later in early 1970's. The 747SR is a short haul version of B747-100, which carries up to 500 passengers.

It operated its first non-scheduled international flights in Feb 1971, to Hong Kong.

ANA introduced intercontinental services since 1986, 1 year before the selling of all JAL shares held by the Japanese Government, because of relaxed air transport regulation.

Despite of very dense Japan domestic network of ANA, it is only the 2nd largest airline in Japan, as ANA has only 24 international destinations, much fewer than Japan Airlines, which has over 40 international destinations (excluding the codeshare flights) but smaller domestic network.

ANA has some of its B747 & B767 painted with Pocket Monsters livery, and makes it world famous.

JAS, Japan's 3rd airline before the merger of JAL & JAS in 2002, was formed from a merger between TOA Airways and Japan Domestic in 1971 as the name of TOA Domestic Airlines (TDA) until 1988. It now flies only a few domestic destination, and is expected to have even fewer flights since then, because of JAL & JAS merger.

JAS set up the airline Japan Air Commuter - JAC with the Japanese government in 1983, which JAS has 60% share of the airline.

The Japanese airlines have very good safety record in general. There is no disaster at all for JAS. There were only 4 disasters for ANA, and ANA has its last disaster happened on 1971-7-30, when an ANA Boeing B727 crashed after colliding with a Japan Air Force F86 fighter jet in flight. There are only 6 disasters for JAL since its foundation in 1951, with the last disaster happened on 1985-8-12.

The last disaster of JAL, however, is the largest single-aircraft disaster in the world. 520 people on board were killed when the B747 suffered an explosive decompression while climbing through 23,000 feet. The failure of the rear pressure bulkhead caused a portion of the vertical stabilizer to be blown away, rupturing all four main hydraulic fluid lines. Controlling the aircraft solely by engine thrust, the crew was attempting to return to Tokyo when the aircraft clipped one mountain ridge, flew across a valley, and impacted a second mountain approximately 400 feet from the summit.

Tokyo-based Skymark Airlines is Japan's first discount carrier. It was founded on 1996-11-12. It uses only B767-200 & B767-300 aircrafts, the only low cost carrier in the world to have full widebody fleet. Its 2 B767-300ER (JA767A, JA767B) has 12 First Class seats in 6-abreast layout, and 297 Economy Class seats in 8-abreast layout, thus giving very narrow seats of no more than 16" wide, the only airline to have such configuration. It has an B767-300ER (JA767C) having 24 First Class seats in 6-abreast layout, and 230 Economy Class seats in 8-abreast layout. Its only B767-200 (JA8255) has all-economy class layout of 7-abreast and 234 seats.

Its First Class, Cygnus Class, has seat pitch of 43", more than 38"-42" for other airlines. Passengers can upgrade from economy class for only 4,000 yen for Tokyo - Fukuoka route, and 3,000 yen for Tokyo - Kagoshima route.

It also introduces 10 seats for women aged 12 or over on each flight, as some female passengers say it's too stressful sitting next to men. This is the first and only in the world. Like most low cost carriers, it offers only drinks and no meals.

Because of stiff competition from major airlines, the fare of Skymark airlines is not much cheaper. Even the fare is not that low, the airline still never made a profit since its launch in 1996, as passengers prefer to pay a little more for flights operated by major airlines.