Tokyo, January 19, 10 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Japan’s national airliner the JAL, would be filling for bankruptcy today in one the largest corporate bankruptcies of the post WWII Japan. 

 

The company has debts estimated at more than 21 billion euros, and the government of Japan plans on restructuring the carrier. It is expected that the company will cut thousands of jobs, closing destination routes and sell some of its aircrafts as the first steps to bring the company back in business. The company may have to shed 15,000 full-time employees out of its 45,000 total worldwide.

 

"The government wants to continue to support JAL to ensure its continued stable and safe operations," Seiji Maehara, the Japanese transport minister, told reporters this morning.

 

Japanese economy has fallen into a long protracted recession since the early 1990’s when Asia’s stock markets  from Thailand to South Korea suddenly collapsed. The emergence of Chinese manufacturing also dealt a major blow to Japanese exports as it lost a big chunk of global markets to Chinese competitors.

 

In addition, the ever increasing price hike for jet fuel has caused very small profit margin for the whole airline industry, especially major carriers like the JAL.