On Friday, an announcement came from a government task force (organized to help revive Japan Airlines Corp) that it shall look into the carrier's turnaround plans from a scratch. It added that dividing it into "good" and "bad" parts was an option.

A government bailout was asked on Friday by JAL, which is overwhelmed by $15 billion of debt, and moving towards its second straight annual loss. However, the new transport minister did not offer any support to concerns that the airline's cost-cutting plans would not go far enough. A further fall by 7% was evident in JAL's shares, as the ex state-owned national flag carrier's fate remains highly unsure.

Due to a drop in JAL's stock price, almost 100 billion yen in market value were lost in the past two days. This took its total capitalization down to 361 billion yen -- nearly half that of smaller rival All Nippon Airways. Delta Airlines and a rival group of carriers led by American Airlines, which are expecting growth in Japan and the rest of Asia, are holding separate talks with the aim of investing in JAL and deepening their ties with the company.

Creditors have floated the idea of breaking JAL into "good" and "bad" parts, similar to the restructuring of U. S. automaker General Motors. However, Transport Minister Seiji Maehara's stance that bankruptcy was not being considered was also reiterated by the task force. The head of the task force, Shinjiro Takagi, expressed, "We are not thinking about using legal procedures. We can work things out among interested parties."