JAL to provide Flying Banner for Government Energy Saving Campaign

JAL is to support a Japanese government energy-saving campaign - ‘Team Minus 6%’ - for the second year running by painting one of its Boeing 777-300 aircraft with the campaign’s logo. Team Minus 6% is a nation-wide energy-saving campaign initiated by the Japanese Ministry of Environment (MoE) in May 2005 in response to environmental obligations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions pledged in the Kyoto Protocol.

Under the Kyoto Protocol adopted in 1997, Japan is required to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 by 6% from the level in the base year of 1990.

JAL will paint a 3.6 x 11.5 meter design featuring the ‘Team Minus 6%’ campaign logo on one of its Boeing 777-300 to help increase the public’s awareness of this environment-friendly campaign. Travelers will be able to see the aircraft with its new livery on domestic Japan routes from early June right up until the end of 2006.

JAL will hold a special ceremony at Haneda airport on June 7, the day the aircraft will carry the logo for the first time.

During June 2006, Japan’s ‘Environmental Month’, JAL will also start showing a ‘Team Minus 6%’ public information video produced by the MoE on all of its domestic flights operating out of Haneda Airport. The video asks viewers to consider how they use energy in their everyday lives, and to economically utilize and conserve energy in whatever ways are possible.

JAL will also continue the activities it initiated last year in support of the campaign. Since last year, JAL has provided information on ‘Team Minus 6%’ together with the campaign’s logo on JAL’s website, within in-flight magazines, its CSR Report and timetables. JAL also encourages staff to dress in cooler lightweight clothing and promotes a ‘no neck-tie’ policy within offices during Japan’s hot and humid summer months. Dubbed by the Environment Ministry "Cool Biz", this initiative aims to enable JAL to save energy by cutting down on air conditioner use.

With Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as ‘Team leader’, the ‘Team Minus 6%’ campaign is considered the first step towards fulfilling this target, urging local governments, businesses and the general public to cooperate by switching to energy-saving appliances; while the central government promotes the use of fuel cells and solar energy.

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