Japan Airlines Corp. will cut 6,800 jobs — 14 percent of its work force — by 2011 as the carrier plans the biggest reduction of routes in its history.

The job cuts will start this year, company president Haruka Nishimatsu told journalists in Tokyo yesterday. Those will include early retirements.

Japan Air will scrap about 20 international flights, about 20 percent of its overseas routes, through fiscal 2011 starting next month, the Nikkei newspaper reported yesterday, without naming specific routes. Japan Airlines and its Jalways subsidiary are the largest Japanese carriers serving Hawai'i.

The carrier, recipient of three government bailouts since 2001, aims to complete talks on a tie-up with a foreign carrier by mid-October, Nishimatsu said, without specifying any partner.

KAUA'I OCEAN ENERGY PROPOSAL GETS FUNDS

A proposed ocean thermal energy conversion project for Kaua'i has received $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct baseline biological sampling studies at a site near Port Allen.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye announced the award to Ocean Engineering and Energy Systems International, which will conduct the study to create a conceptual design for a warm water intake pipe.

OTEC is a technology that uses temperature differences between the ocean surface and water 2,000 feet deep to generate electricity.

TOMMY BAHAMA SEEKING JAPAN PARTNER

Clothing maker and retailer Tommy Bahama is seeking to expand to Japan, and has retained Honolulu-based commercial property brokerage firm NAI ChaneyBrooks to find a licensing partner for the venture.

Tommy Bahama, which opened a combination restaurant-retail store nine years ago on Maui as its first Hawai'i outlet, has about 70 U.S. stores, and additional international locations through licensing partners in Australia, Canada and Dubai.