The Transport Ministry will instruct domestic airlines to thoroughly review their manuals on hijacking, Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki said Tuesday, noting that All Nippon Airways "failed to prevent a knife-carrying passenger from boarding a plane and hijacking it."

Manuals have been prepared by individual airlines in the past, but should be made more uniform in line with the ministry's advice, Kawasaki said.

"We have a tragedy (in the ANA hijacking case)," Kawasaki told a news conference. "It is only natural that we examine whether there is anything we can do (to prevent a recurrence)."