Flew from Narita to Singapore and got injured on the flight due to a Japanese passenger pushing me when going to the toilet. No response from the customer service centre for five days. Also very difficult to find a number to ring them on. Pretty poor. Never had this experience with other airlines.

Great food and service BUT...the plane we were on (B777-300) was very hot...like 80 F. I asked 3 times for them to give me a little fresh air but nothing. Japan Airlines also has too many announcements. Just when you get to sleep there is always another needless announcement! They will not turn down the lights either. They run the airline like the military with no exceptions to the rules! Another thing...our flight back from Tokyo to San Fran was only 1/4 full. There were 5 people in Super Economy and less in Business and First Class. We asked if they would allow any of us to move up into the more comfortable seats but were told NO and it would cost us $200 each to move up to Super Economy. The least they could have done was maybe have a random drawing of seat rows to allow some lucky ones to move up. Then we would have all been able to at least stretch out back in Economy. The seats on the new B777's are VERY uncomfortable and cramped. The older version of the B747-400 was the best in my opinion...especially if you select the upper deck where there are about 70 seats. Up there you have more room. If you sit by the window in the upper deck you have a storage area next to the window that will fit a back pack. When it is closed you have an area where you can spread out some of your things. It comes in handy during meal time. My bottom line on this airline is that I will shop around for another airline next trip to Manila. No more JAL for me.

Overall a very good airline, good personnel and except for seat room a-okay!

My chicken allergy and dislike of most fish food was noted by the kind JALPak service employee. However, no message was somehow relayed to the flight personnel in Japan.
It was relayed to Japan by the JALPak person though.
As a result, no special meal was available for me, and the same bland food was served for the fourth time I was flying with JAL on the Tokyo to Amsterdam route (I almost tend to think they only have 1 choice of meals on Economy on the flight to Amsterdam). However, the stewardess went way overboard and got me a business class steak dinner and some veggie spaghetti for a second course. Even though I figured the special order may not come through and packed some snacks, the stewardess insisted she wanted me to have the meal I ordered.
The service went way beyond what I expected.

I have flown with Japan Airlines 3 times now (from Amsterdam Schiphol to various destinations in Japan and back), usually the outward bound flights have excellent food for economy class.

Since I am not the skinniest person in the world, I usually just get the seat-belt buckles closed when seated.
On JAL flights this was not possible, and I had to ask for an extension so I could close the buckle.
This caused some embarrassment from the stewardess, as everyone was already seated. Having learned from this, I requested an extension to the seat-belt the last two times I flew with JAL, and this was promptly delivered before everyone was seated.
I have heard people state concerns about leg space. Well, KLM was a lot worse with 2 inches less!

Overall: Pleasant experience on outbound flights, check in at Schiphol is sometimes annoying due to some staff being unfriendly.

Arrival in Tokyo can cause delays at customs checks for luggage inspections. I have found out that it helps to go with a group towards 1 customs officer, if you are travelling in larger groups.
Even though sometimes you need to have your luggage inspected by customs, I find that Japanese customs is much nicer about it than for example US customs, who are often quite rude.

On the return flights however, I have always had the same monotonous food.
On my first trip back from Narita the stewardess offered me some of the staff food, cutlet sandwiches, which was great. On my second and third flight, they had the same food again, which I declined to eat, and I was not offered anything else.

On the second and third flight from Japan, most of the stewardesses did not speak English at all. My Japanese is limited, but I could understand most of it. However, they did not (or did not want?) to understand me. I never become rude, and I just let it go. I must remember to request different food for return flights.

Since I am a fan of Japanese movies, I usually buy a lot of stuff in Japan, and my suitcase is usually heavier than the allowed 20kg. The friendly JAL staff at Osaka (Itami) and Narita airport never complained about my suitcase being heavy after I said that my suitcase might be a bit heavy. At Narita it was 26kg, at Itami it was 29.5. An English person at Narita who only had a 3kg overweight suitcase started out by being rude to the staff that his suitcase may be overweight, but that should be no problem. Because he was loud, and obnoxious (I think?) He got fined 6000 yen per kilo overweight.

My experience in Japan with ground staff is that as long as you (can) remain polite, quite a lot is possible to deviate from standard behaviour.

Also, you can bring quite a lot more into the country than the allowed amount if you have the items gift-wrapped in quality gift-wrap paper and report the items as gifts, Omiyage. I was allowed to bring 4 litres of strong liquor in for friends without having to pay import tax on them (normal allowance is 1 litre) because they were gifts.

In conclusion:
Jal Outbound from Europe is great. Inbound from Narita, the food is bad. Sometimes they have trainee stewardesses on-board that do not speak English at all, and do not belong on intercontinental flights. Sometimes the normal stewardesses do not speak English, but will usually fetch someone who can if they can not understand your request. Punctuality is usually fine too.

I have flown Japan Airlines for transpacific flights 6 times over the last 2 years, and each time is roughly the same experience. Not very comfortable in economy, but excellent service. The 747-400s all have the seatback in-flight entertainment selection, and the food is quite good, and meals are served in about 3 hour intervals during the flight with drinks served about every 30 minutes in between. The main problem is the seat width witch is always slightly smaller than my average American body frame, but with the lower than average airfares and AA dvantage miles, it has been my choice recently.

Japan Airlines are known for their polite and efficient workforce and I experienced it last year. Every question was received with a smile and an answer and no request seemed to be too big. I was comfortable and relaxed and that is how I think a flight should be. The flight delays were annoying but I guess they are to be expected occasionally. However, I didn't expect both journeys to be plagued by long delays without explanation! On arrival in Osaka I stupidly had left my passport and return ticket in the seat pocket. I was grilled and "told off" by the airport staff at Arrivals. They refused me to show them where they were, so it took about 2 hours for the staff involved to find my passport without me - they had ignored me when I told them where they were and searched half of the plane apparently! However, my ticket (which had been inside the photo page of my passport) was not with it and a rude security man told me in bad English that it was "tough luck", that it was my fault and that I would have to buy a new one! So, for a silly mistake it cost me bigtime. Kudos to the airline but thumbs down to the airport staff!