Machiko Taniguchi, who lost her husband in the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet, spoke in July directly to young JAL employees involved in flight safety, her first such opportunity since the tragedy.

"The safety of the skies rests on your eyes and your hands," she told them.

A week later, Taniguchi, 77, climbed to the crash site on Osutaka Ridge in the village of Ueno, Gunma Prefecture, and stood before the memorial marker for her husband. "I told him I had asked them to make sure the same accident never happens again," she said.