民間航空記念日（minkan koku kinenbi）

They say October 25 is minkan koku kinenbi(民間航空記念日), anniversary of private aviation. In 1951 Nihon koku(日本航空), which was the first Japanese private aviation company after world war II, started the domestic operation from Tokyo (東京) to Osaka (大阪) to Fukuoka (福岡). The first plane "Mokusei go(もく星号)" was entrusted to Northwest Airline, therefore all the crew were foreigners and there were only 36 passengers.
The company became a state-owned airline of Japan on August 1, 1953 and began its first international services from Tokyo to San Francisco on February 2, 1954.
On November 18,1987, it was privatized again. In 2002 Japan Airlines merged with Japan Air System and became the sixth largest airline in the world by passenger carried.
In the 2008 fiscal year, the JAL Group's operations include 220 destinations in 35 countries worldwide, carrying 52.9 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo and mail.
However this fall it was reported that JAL is in the serious management crisis. It's hard to believe.