An aviation industry outsider, the 77-year-old Kazuo Inamori looks set to take on the daunting task of turning around an airline saddled with $16 billion in debt, mired in losses and grappling with a massive pension shortfall.

Here are five facts about Inamori:

-- In 1959, at the age of 27, Inamori founded what is now Kyocera with an initial investment of just 3 million yen ($33,000), and turned the company into one of Japan's most profitable technology groups with nearly 60,000 employees.

-- In 1984, Inamori established the predecessor to KDDI Corp, Japan's second-biggest telephone operator, and is an honorary adviser to the firm.

-- A staunch supporter of the Democratic Party of Japan, Inamori is a member of a panel headed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama seeking to cut wasteful government spending.

-- Inamori is president of Seiwajyuku, a private management school that teaches his management philosophy to over 5,000 business owners.

-- Ordained as a Buddhist priest in 1997, Inamori publishes a Words of the Week inspirational comment about leadership and living on his official website here.

Japan