TOKYO, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Japan Airlines Corp <9205.T> will keep its partnership with American Airlines <AMR.N> in the Oneworld alliance due to concerns that forging ties with rival suitor Delta Air Lines <DAL.N> would make it difficult to achieve a quick turnaround, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

Delta and American have been courting JAL, now bankrupt, for months with offers of financial aid and close cooperation on international routes, looking to gain access to its vast network in Asia and benefit from the expansion at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

Prior to its filing for bankruptcy protection last month, JAL was leaning towards Delta and its Skyteam alliance, attracted by the potential for cost cuts offered by Delta’s strong network in Asia, sources had said. [ID:nSGE60I079]

But JAL’s new management team and a state-backed fund supporting the carrier has decided that switching alliances would be too risky and could hinder the fund’s plans to exit its investment in three years, the source said.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan Airlines Corp has decided to maintain its partnership with American Airlines in the Oneworld alliance and end talks with Delta Air Lines, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

JAL’s new management team, led by chief executive officer Kazuo Inamori, has decided that switching alliances would involve too much risk and could hinder the carrier’s three-year restructuring plan, the source said.

Delta, which leads the Skyteam alliance team, and American have been courting JAL for months with offers of financial aid and close cooperation on international routes, looking to gain access to its vast network in Asia and benefit from the expansion at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

JAL, which filed for bankruptcy last month, will make an official announcement of its plans to stay with American on Tuesday, said the source who declined to be named as the information is not public yet.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan Airlines Corp has decided to maintain its partnership with American Airlines in the Oneworld alliance and end talks with Delta Air Lines, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

JAL’s new management team, led by chief executive officer Kazuo Inamori, has decided that switching alliances would involve too much risk and could hinder the carrier’s three-year restructuring plan, the source said.

Delta, which leads the Skyteam alliance team, and American have been courting JAL for months with offers of financial aid and close cooperation on international routes, looking to gain access to its vast network in Asia and benefit from the expansion at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

JAL, which filed for bankruptcy last month, will make an official announcement of its plans to stay with American on Tuesday, said the source who declined to be named as the information is not public yet.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said Sunday.

Safety regulators in both the United States and Japan, the Prius’s biggest markets, are investigating braking problems with the model, Japan’s top-selling car last year and an icon of green design that has lifted the public image of Toyota.

Toyota said last week it planned to make a final decision on whether to issue a recall or voluntary repair as soon as possible. The dealer, who declined to be identified, said the recall could come in the next few days.

Toyota’s president apologized Friday for safety problems.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said Sunday.

Safety regulators in both the United States and Japan, the Prius’s biggest markets, are investigating braking problems with the model, Japan’s top-selling car last year and an icon of green design that has lifted the public image of Toyota.

Toyota said last week it planned to make a final decision on whether to issue a recall or voluntary repair as soon as possible. The dealer, who declined to be identified, said the recall could come in the next few days.

Toyota’s president apologized Friday for safety problems.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said on Sunday.

Safety regulators in both the United States and Japan, the Prius’s biggest markets, are investigating braking problems with the model, Japan’s top-selling car last year and an icon of green design that has lifted the public image of Toyota.

Toyota said last week it planned to make a final decision on whether to issue a recall or voluntary repair as soon as possible. The dealer, who declined to be identified, said the recall could come in the next few days.

Toyota’s president apologised on Friday for safety problems.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp’s mass recall crisis may seem peculiarly its own, but the top carmaker’s woes are a cautionary tale for other Japanese companies needing to expand abroad and drive earnings growth.

Critics say Toyota, hemorrhaging its reputation for reliability as it recalls millions of cars over a sometimes fatal accelerator defect, failed to balance a traditionally tight management style that ensured quality with the changing demands of globalization.

Stefan Lippert, a business professor at Temple University in Japan, calls it the “kaisha dilemma,” using the Japanese word for “company.”

“The incredible success of the Japanese economy is based on the ‘kaisha’. It’s based on this specific management model,” he said, referring to Japan’s rapid economic growth before stalling in the 1990s. “However, times have changed.”

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp’s first profit in five quarters showed a restructuring at the electronics maker is starting to pay off as it halved its annual loss forecast on a rebound in its flat-TV business and cost cuts.

Third quarter to December profit was also driven by its insurance division, whose investments were buoyed by a recovery in Japanese shares.

The company has shed jobs and shut plants following the global economic downturn and has worked to shore up its flat TV division, which has struggled amid stiff price competition with Samsung Electronics Co and other rivals.

“Earnings have bottomed out … Whether the recovery will continue in the next business year depends largely on its TV operations and videogames,” said Kazuharu Miura, a senior analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets.

TOKYO, Jan 19 (Reuters) – About 40 billion yen ($441 million) of Japan Airlines Corp’s <9205.T> fuel hedges, mostly in Brent forward contracts, are estimated to be exposed in the event of an automatic termination of hedging contracts, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The source told Reuters there were 12 major counterparties, of which 10 have contracts that are subject to ISDA standards, meaning automatic early termination (AET) will be triggered.

Other industry sources said the counterparties are largely big investment banks.

Normally, filing for bankruptcy protection triggers an event of default, which in turn triggers AET.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan Airlines moved a step closer to bankruptcy on Friday by drawing down $1.6 billion in emergency funding and with the government setting Tuesday as the day to officially start a state-led restructuring.

JAL, Asia’s largest airline by revenues but with a market value now lower than that of budget carrier Skymark Airlines, will file for bankruptcy protection as early as Tuesday, sources have told Reuters, as part of a restructuring being crafted by a state-backed turnaround fund.

Transport minister Seiji Maehara met Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and agreed Tuesday would be the day the state-backed fund would officially decide to support the carrier, a deal contingent upon it filing for bankruptcy.

“We are doing everything possible to reduce anxiety and ensure that X-day will not cause any confusion,” Maehara told reporters on Friday.