TOKYO (AP) – Japan Airlines is set to file for bankruptcy Tuesday, writing Japanese history as one of the nation's biggest corporate failures from which it could emerge a leaner, self-sustaining carrier.

The country's flagship carrier, called JAL for short, will likely convene a special board meeting in the afternoon before filing for protection from creditors under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law – Japan's version of Chapter 11, according to Kyodo News agency.
The filing will be followed by a restructuring plan crafted by a government-backed corporate turnaround body.

President Haruka Nishimatsu is expected to resign. Leadership of the company will be handed over to Kazuo Inamori, a buddhist monk and founder of electronic components behemoth Kyocera Corp. and Japan's No. 2 mobile carrier KDDI Corp.

The government will also offer assurances that it backs the rehabilitation and intends to keep JAL flying.

"The government wants to continue to support JAL to ensure its continued stable and safe operations,'' said transport minister Seiji Maehara hours before the expected filing.

The day's events culminate a process that began in October when JAL – saddled with debts of 1.5 trillion yen ($16.5 billion) – first turned to the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. for help. Under a prepackaged restructuring strategy, it will embark on a massive overhaul to shed the fat and inefficiency that hobbled Asia's biggest airline.

Geoffrey Tudor, a principal analyst at Japan Aviation Management Research and former JAL employee, said the airline needs to be leaner and meaner.

"It wasn't commercially brutal enough in dealing with the facts of economic life,'' said Tudor, who spent 38 years at the Japanese carrier and now watches its collapse with a mixture of sadness and frustration.

The plan calls for about 15,600 job cuts, or a third of JAL's work force, by March 2013 and will require the airline to halve the number of its subsidiaries which span everything from hotels to credit cards, according to Kyodo. The Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. will invest about 300 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in the carrier, and JAL's main lenders have been asked to waive about 350 billion yen in liabilities.