DBJ agrees to expand credit line for Japan Airlines

Thursday 31st December, 01:17 PM JST

TOKYO —

The state-owned Development Bank of Japan agreed in a meeting with government officials Thursday to expand its current 100 billion yen credit line for Japan Airlines, meeting participants said. The amount of the expansion to support the striving carrier’s financing for the time being will be decided on through further consultations and will be announced Sunday, they said.

The expansion was requested by the government in the meeting at a Tokyo hotel attended by officials including Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, concurrently state minister for national strategy, and transport minister Seiji Maehara, they said.

› Login to comment

7 Comments

biglittleman at 03:23 PM JST - 31st December

They just don't get it. That is why Japan has been in this economic probel since the 90's. Continuing to allow JAL not to adapt to the market will make them inefficient and expensive.

Example, the other day me and my girlfriend decided to make plans to go to a onsen in a couple of weeks. We went to a travel agent. Instead of having everything on the computer they had to go and pull to huge dictionary type books then search through them for packages. Afterwards will had to fill out forms. How inconvenient and inefficient is that? Then right outside they had a display of human size robot to help the elderly in the future.

You keep proping up these companies and they will continue to suck. That is why they don't want outside investment. They don't like being told they are wrong. They prefer the status quo. Keeping the facade alive.
wanderlust at 05:22 PM JST - 31st December

**in the meeting at a Tokyo hotel attended by official

I wonder how much the food, drink and service cost for this meeting? Was there no meeting room available in either of their offices? Another waste of tax payers money...
kp123 at 05:41 PM JST - 31st December

Reminds me of the similar situation that faced Alitalia 5 years ago when the national carrier went bankrupt. An Italian investment group purchased the airline and its debt and issued shares to Air France-KLM to maintain the airline's national identity. If this is Japan's primary concern, why not adopt this similar strategy and then sell shares to Delta or AMR? In a way, I don't blame Japan for preserving their national carrier, but throwing good money after bad doesn't make sense other than to satisfy their national pride.
stirfry at 07:53 PM JST - 31st December

but throwing good money after bad doesn't make sense other than to satisfy their national pride.

of course not but then again, its not their own money they're spending, so they definitely don't give a crap
some14some at 07:53 PM JST - 31st December

but throwing good money after bad doesn't make sense other than to satisfy their national pride.

National pride for Y100bil...(?) Such a small amount will hardly cover petty operating expenses/payroll accounting etc...for a short period, i mean for a few months....! Even if JAL is kept afloat..flying high...world knows it has gone bankrupt...so what's national pride? Save tax payers (money) and let Delta or xyz take care of private business.
harmoneeikaiwa at 03:20 PM JST - 1st January

The govt wants it in every which way.Doesn't want to use its money,but wants Japanese banks to bail it out,to avoid the foreign airlines swooping in taking it over.So indecisive.If you gonna rescue, just do it properly or let the chips fall where they may.
guest at 11:33 PM JST - 1st January

JAL is 1.5 Trillion Yen in debt, they will never recover the money and the government knows it. JAL must go bankrupt sometime and now is as good as any time to restructure and start over.