#FlashbackFriday: In 1960, the Exchange Started an Airline Catering Service. Meet Its Founder.

Sixty-four years ago, in April 1960, the Japan/Korea Regional Exchange of the Far East Exchange Service began an airline catering service in Japan. Although many associates outside of Pacific Region might not be aware of it, it still exists today.

The service was the brainchild of Masao Takemura, who conceived it two years earlier, when he was the 28-year-old terminal cafeteria manager for the Military Airlift Command (MAC) terminal at Tachikawa Air Base.

Things could have turned out differently for Takemura, who had already been with the Exchange more than a decade. Born near Tokyo in 1930, at age 14 he became one of the last candidates for kamikaze training during World War II. But as the war neared its end, planes weren’t available, so he was selected for a ground-support position.

Masao Takemura, founder of the Exchange’s airline catering service, in a 1984 photo. Takemura started with the Exchange in 1946 and remained with the organization for at least 50 years.

After the war ended, Takemura began his Exchange career—shortly before his 16^th birthday. He began as a table boy, a position that involved everything from cooking to unloading trucks to busing tables. He worked his way up to the cafeteria manager position.

Told to keep wage costs down, Takemura looked for a way to increase business. He saw an opportunity to get into catering airlines, a business then monopolized by a Japanese company that provided catering to all military and civilian planes flying out of Tachikawa. He spent two years researching the business, even going as far as keeping records on the Japanese company’s loading times, personnel required and flight frequency.

After Takemura launched the service for MAC contract flights in the Pacific, word began to spread. Initially, only Southern Air Transport and Air America were customers. Then Flying Tigers and Riddle Airlines started using the service later in 1960.

In 1962, the service was moved to a different building on the air base and dubbed Inflight Kitchen. Service was expanded to Pan American and Slick Airlines flights.

At first, frozen meals were prepared for airlines and transported to the air base terminal and a nearby housing area commissary. More than 20,000 frozen meals were supplied monthly.

In 1963, Inflight Kitchen moved again, to the BX East Cafeteria on East Tachikawa. Production increased, with 50,000 meals per month prepared for airlines and commissaries.

In this photo from a 1977 Exchange Post, airline catering service workers prepare food for flights.

In November 1968, during the Vietnam War, the service had $194,800 in sales, the highest monthly sales it had generated. According to one website, that’s the equivalent of more than $1.7 million in 2024 dollars. In late 1968, the service was averaging more than $100,000 in monthly sales and serving an average 540 aircraft monthly.

The service, which moved to Yokota Air Base in 1973, supported aircraft during President Nixon’s visit to China and President Ford’s visit to Japan. The service also provided support during “Operation Babylift” and other evacuation efforts from South Vietnam in 1975. Aircraft landing at Yokota at all hours were provided diapers, baby bottles and other items. All catering service personnel contributed to the rapid loading of the planes.

Takemura was a part of all this and more—in 1996, he was honored for serving 50 years with the Exchange. He had spent 36 of those years involved in the airline catering service. Retirement information for him wasn’t immediately available, but the last Exchange Post reference to him was in 1996.

The airline catering service continues, sometimes offering unusual support. After a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck northern Japan in 2011, the catering service fed passengers who were stranded at Yokota Air Base with deli sandwiches, pizza and other items from the food court.