Japan

Asia

19Airlines

6Profiled Airports

17With ICAO

17With Callsign

Aviation History

Japan's powered aviation history began in 1910 with the country's first flights near Tokyo, and grew rapidly through military aviation in the pre-WWII era, including the wartime Mitsubishi Zero fighter. Allied occupation authorities restricted Japanese civil aviation activity after WWII; once restrictions eased in the early 1950s, Japan Airlines (1951) and the predecessor of All Nippon Airways (1952-53) were founded and became the country's two dominant carriers. Tokyo's air transport network expanded with the contentious 1978 opening of Narita Airport, while the 1985 crash of JAL Flight 123, the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history, profoundly affected Japanese aviation safety culture. JAL underwent a major bankruptcy restructuring in 2010, and Japan's aviation market diversified further with the arrival of low-cost carriers such as Peach and Jetstar Japan around 2012.

✦JAL Flight 123 remains the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history.

✦Tokyo is served by two major airports, Narita and Haneda, an arrangement stemming from 1970s capacity and land-use disputes rather than original planning.

✦Japan's wartime Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter was one of the most significant carrier-based aircraft of WWII and shaped postwar constraints on Japanese aircraft manufacturing.

1910

First powered flight in Japan

Japanese army officer Yoshitoshi Tokugawa flew a Farman biplane at Yoyogi in Tokyo in December 1910, marking the first officially recorded powered flight in Japan.

1951

Japan Airlines founded post-occupation

Japan Airlines was established on 1 August 1951 as Japan began rebuilding civil aviation under continuing Allied occupation oversight.

1952

ANA's predecessor founded with two helicopters

Nippon Helicopter and Aeroplane Transport, the forerunner of All Nippon Airways, was founded around 1952-53 and later renamed ANA in 1957.

1954

JAL begins first international route to San Francisco

Japan Airlines launched its first international service in February 1954, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco.

1978

Narita Airport opens after years of land disputes

Tokyo's New Tokyo International Airport (Narita) opened in 1978 following prolonged and sometimes violent land-acquisition disputes with local farmers.

1985

JAL Flight 123 crash kills 520 people

In August 1985, Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashed into Mount Osutaka after a structural failure, killing 520 of 524 aboard in the deadliest single-aircraft accident in aviation history.

2010

JAL files for bankruptcy and restructures

Japan Airlines filed for corporate bankruptcy protection in January 2010, underwent major restructuring, and relisted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2012.

2012

Peach and Jetstar Japan launch, starting Japan's LCC era

Low-cost carriers Peach Aviation and Jetstar Japan began operations in 2012, introducing budget flying to the Japanese domestic market.

Notable Carriers

Japan Airlines (JAL) · All Nippon Airways (ANA) · Peach Aviation · Jetstar Japan · Skymark Airlines

General aviation history sources (Wikipedia, Britannica, JAL and ANA corporate histories); exact founding dates for ANA's earliest predecessor company vary slightly (1952 vs 1953) across sources.

Aviation Firsts

Oldest Airport — contested

Haneda Airport — Tokyo (1931): Opened 15 August 1931 — Japan's oldest airport still operating with scheduled commercial service (Tachikawa Airfield predated it as Tokyo's main airport but was military and is closed). · HND ↗ · Wikipedia ↗

Tokorozawa Airfield — Saitama (1911): Opened 1 April 1911, called Japan's first airfield. Closed; became Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Park (1978) / Aviation Museum (1993). Experimental/military use only, never scheduled civil service. · Wikipedia ↗

Tokorozawa (1911) satisfies 'first airfield ever' but is closed and never had scheduled civil service; Haneda (1931) satisfies 'oldest airport with continuous scheduled civil service.'

Oldest Airline

Japan Air Transport Institute (1922): Began passenger service between Sakai and Tokushima on 3 November 1922 (one secondary source gives 12 November) — the earliest commercial air transport company in Japan, one of three small firms operating 1922–1923. Absorbed into the government-backed Japan Air Transport Corporation in 1928, itself merged into the state monopoly Imperial Japanese Airways in 1938. No direct corporate lineage to postwar JAL (1951) or ANA (1952). · Wikipedia ↗

First Foreign Ground Handler

Swissport (Switzerland): Japan's ground handling market is historically described by trade press as closed to foreign entrants, dominated by local companies/airlines, with the government only recently moving to attract foreign operators. The most concrete documented date for a foreign handler is Swissport serving Narita Airport 'since 2010,' per Swissport's own network page — no source explicitly calls this 'the first.' (best-documented candidate found — not source-confirmed as literally first.) · Swissport ↗