You were hurt on an ANA flight between California and Tokyo, or on a longer itinerary that connected through it. The claim is governed by a treaty rather than by ordinary California negligence law, and that trade is mostly in your favor.

Does the Montreal Convention Cover an ANA Flight?

Yes. Japan was one of the earliest countries to join the treaty, well before it took effect in 2003, and the United States is a party too. The treaty governs international carriage between parties, and the test is the ticket rather than the segment, so a journey from San Francisco through Tokyo to Manila is international carriage from the first leg to the last.

What the treaty actually does gets misread constantly. Below a threshold it sets, ANA is not permitted to argue that it was not at fault for an injury caused by an accident on board. Above that threshold it can defend itself by proving it took all reasonable measures, and if it cannot, nothing caps what it owes. The figure is a floor under the claim, not a cap on it.

Can You Sue ANA in California?

Often you can, and it is worth finding out rather than assuming the case has to be brought in Japan. The treaty gives an injured passenger a forum at their principal and permanent residence, provided the airline operates service to or from that place and does business there from premises it or a commercial partner occupies. Several factors determine whether those conditions were met on your trip, including what the carrier was operating to or from California at the time and the presence it kept in the state. We can review the itinerary with you and tell you where the claim can go. The forum, and the circumstances that close it, are covered in suing a foreign airline in California.

One Procedural Question to Settle Early

Worth settling at the outset, because the answer is not the same for every large international carrier.

Under US law, a carrier that a foreign government owns or controls can be treated as an arm of that state. The consequences are procedural rather than substantive: the case may be tried to a judge instead of a jury, and the airline has to be served through a particular route rather than ordinary means. Several of the world's major international airlines are in that position and several are not, the holdings involved change hands, and a government stake sometimes sits in a parent company rather than in the airline. It is a quick question to answer against a current source, and because it governs how the airline gets served, it belongs in the first week rather than the tenth month.

Who You Actually Contracted With

ANA operates a deep transpacific joint venture with its US Star Alliance partner, which makes this the most commonly missed question on these claims. A passenger books on the American carrier's website, sees that carrier's flight number on the confirmation, and boards an ANA aircraft with ANA crew. The reverse happens on the domestic connection.

Under the treaty the airline that sold the ticket and the airline that operated the flight are distinct, and a claim can proceed against either. That can matter enormously, because if a US airline sold you the ticket it can be sued here with no argument about foreign forums at all. The booking confirmation with its operated-by line is where this gets resolved. The boarding pass is not, because the number on it often belongs to the seller.

What injures passengers

Common Injuries on a Tokyo Flight, and Which Ones the Treaty Reaches

The California sectors run ten to twelve hours, and both Tokyo airports connect onward into Asia.

Overhead Bin and Falling Baggage

A bin that opens in flight, or a bag coming down during deplaning. External, and the clearest case the treaty handles.

Hot Liquid and the Service Cart

Scalding tea or coffee, or a cart striking a shoulder in the aisle. The cabin is under service for most of the day.

Turbulence

An unbelted passenger thrown from a seat. External, and a real risk on the Pacific tracks. Whether the belt sign was on matters.

Jetway and Airstairs Falls

Inside the treaty, because embarking and disembarking are part of the carriage. The jetway and the airstairs both count.

A Fall Inside the Terminal

Outside the treaty. A fall inside Haneda or Narita is a premises claim in Japan, often on a much shorter deadline. Do not let it sit.

Clots, Cardiac Events, and Back Injuries

The hard category. The airline's answer is that your own condition surfaced on an ordinary flight, and it has been difficult to overcome.

Where We Are Not the Right Call

If your principal home is outside California, the forum follows it and local counsel there will serve you better. If you fell in Haneda or Narita while connecting rather than on the aircraft or the jetway, that is a Japanese premises claim rather than a treaty claim against ANA. If the landing date is more than two years behind you, the claim is very likely over, and the airline's internal review never paused that clock. Baggage goes through the airline's own process, inside a window counted in days rather than months.

What to Do This Week

One. Get the booking confirmation and establish whether a US carrier or ANA was the seller. On a joint venture this deep, the boarding pass will mislead you.

Two. Write the account now. On a turbulence injury in particular, a contemporaneous description of when the seatbelt sign was on and what the crew said is worth more than anything you will remember in a year.

Three. See a physician before the gap in the record becomes the argument.

Four. Count two years from the landing date.

If you live in California and something external injured you on the aircraft, the forum question is usually the easy part and the documentation is the hard part. We evaluate these claims at no cost, and if the honest answer is that there was no accident in the treaty's sense, you will hear it in the first conversation.