In 1953, a fledgling Japan Airlines asked Katsuya Nohara to open its Honolulu office, then the carrier's second overseas office.

The ground work laid by Nohara and his successors helped usher in the jet age for Hawai'i tourism and helped develop a market that now accounts for more than a million visitors a year to Hawai'i.

"You can say it paved the way to an enormous expansion of tourism between Japan and Hawai'i," said local aviation industry historian Peter Forman.

"It's been a big part of the success of the Hawai'i economy from the 1980s and onward."

Nohara, a resident of Makiki, died Sunday of liver cancer. He was 85.

Throughout his 40-year airline career, Nohara has held key executive posts in Tokyo, San Francisco, London as well as several stints in Honolulu.

Shortly after launching Japan Airlines' local office, Nohara was sent to Washington, D.C. where he helped negotiate new routes in the United States for the company.

In the early 1970s, he headed the company's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

During that period, he received national recognition in Japan when Palestinian terrorists and a member of the Japanese Red Army hijacked a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 bound for Tokyo from Amsterdam.

After the plane was forced to land in Dubai, Nohara offered himself in exchange for the plane's 137 passengers and crew members.

According to an account provide by his family, Nohara also was taken hostage.

The plane was taken to Syria and then Libya, where Nohara, the passengers and crew members were released unharmed. The terrorists later blew up the plane.

Born in Tientsin, China, Nohara grew up in London before moving back to Japan in 1935. He attended Seijo Gakuen High School in Tokyo and graduated from Tokyo University.

An avid golfer, Nohara also played soccer, a sport he continued to enjoy well into his late 70s, his family said.

He is survived by his wife Toshi Frances; son, Steven Nohara; and daughters, Dorcie Sakuma, Ann Abaya and Mary Nohara.

Funeral arrangements are pending.