The decision to file for bankruptcy was not his, the president of language-school chain Geos Corp., Tsuneo Kusunoki, implied in an unusual statement released Thursday, the Japan Times reported. A Geos lawyer explained that because "three directors could not reach agreement" on the bankruptcy filing, the action was not taken by the board of directors but rather by some executives. The lawyer stressed that the process is legal.

Japan Airlines Corp., restructuring under a 900 billion yen ($9.7 billion) state-backed plan, shouldn’t allow government aid to distort competition, the International Air Transport Association said. “Restructuring has to be fast and painful,” IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani said, BusinessWeek reported. JAL, which was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange in February, is planning to cut almost a third of its workforce, slash flights and retire older planes over three years to return to profit. All Nippon Airways Co.

Debt-ridden Japan Airlines Corp said it will suspend its scheduled freighter flight services by the end of October and would instead use the cargo belly space of passenger flights, Reuters reported. The airline's passenger flights provide cargo capacity of about three times the volume available on its scheduled freighter flights, the company said in a press release posted on its website.

Cing, developer of well-known video game titles including Little King’s Story, Another Code (Trace Memory), Monster Rancher, and Hotel Dusk, has filed for bankruptcy due to mounting debts it could not pay, Geek.com reported. The small Japanese developer only had around 30 staff, but managed to produce a number of memorable games on Nintendo’s platforms. Its debts were relatively small, standing at just $2.9 million, but clearly that was too much for such a small company to handle, and now it looks as though it will be forced to close.

Japan Airlines Corp plans to reduce its work force by 2,700, or about 5 percent, by offering early retirement, the Nikkei business daily reported. JAL, which employs about 51,800 groupwide, aims to let go 1,700 employees at its core unit, Japan Airlines International Co, and the rest at other group firms, the paper said. The carrier, which did not disclose how much severance pay early retirees are to receive, will start with 400 flight crew and ground staff managers, the Nikkei said.

Japan Airlines Corp., the first major Asian flag carrier to file for bankruptcy, has its last trading day in Tokyo today, wiping out shareholders in a company that was worth more than $6 billion as recently as March, BusinessWeek reported. The carrier will be officially delisted tomorrow after seeking court protection with 2.32 trillion yen ($26 billion) of debts last month. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama forced the bankruptcy in return for backing a $10 billion turnaround for Tokyo-based JAL, the recipient of at least four state bailouts in less than a decade.

Willcom Inc. will file for bankruptcy protection with the Tokyo District Court on Thursday, initiating a pre-negotiated rebuilding process that will tap taxpayer money, the Nikkei business daily said. The personal handyphone system (PHS) service provider's rehabilitation efforts will be sponsored by Softbank Corp and investment fund Advantage Partners LLP, the paper said.

Japan Airlines Corp. won U.S. court protection while it reorganizes through its main bankruptcy case in Tokyo, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck in Manhattan today granted the Tokyo-based airline Chapter 15 protection in Manhattan court, giving Japan Air a shield against U.S. lawsuits and helping it to organize U.S. creditors’ claims. In operation since 1951, Japan Airlines is the largest domestic carrier in Japan and filed the country’s fourth-biggest bankruptcy. The company’s Jan.

Japan Airlines Corp plans to cut employee pay by 5 percent from April and eliminate bonuses in fiscal 2010 in an attempt to swiftly turn around its business, the Nikkei business daily reported. The proposed wage cuts are the first detailed restructuring plans to come out of JAL since the company filed for bankruptcy in January and was placed under the oversight of the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan, the daily reported.

JAL, Asia's largest carrier by revenue, which filed for bankruptcy protection to pursue turnaround efforts under the auspices of the ETIC, needs around 600 billion yen in bridge loans, the Nikkei said. The business daily said the Development Bank of Japan is expected to extend a total of 300 billion yen in bridge loans, up from the initial estimate of 200 billion yen. The remaining 355 billion yen will be provided by the ETIC.