Finance Minister Shiokawa's $25,000 Plane Ticket

[Taro Toporific]

Dang, and I can't find a cheap Chicago-to-Tokyo R/T for GW for less than $2k

Japan Watch: $25,000 Plane Ticket? No Sweat For Shiokawa
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) Wednesday March 26, 11:25 AM --A round-trip flight between Tokyo and Paris will cost you about $1,000 these days. Unless you happen to be Japan's Finance Minister going to France's capital on official business, in which case the price tag is more than $25,000.
The Finance Ministry, which has long advocated cutting the country's massive government debt, paid an exorbitant Y70 million to charter a jet ..That works out to a staggering Y3.3 million, or roughly $27,500, per Japanese delegate.

[American Oyaji]

My initial reaction was to ask doesnt Japan have its own fleet of aircraft, but I remember that any official Japanese travel is done on JAL usually.

[skyline1080]

psh!! with a price like that, i'd be riding on that special plane that carries chickens and goats