Totally agree.  Used to fly to Japan a bunch and being able to get on JAL or ANA was always a good experience.  Even flying domestic within Japan would beat first class on other airlines as far as service goes.  Can you imagine having an overweight bag and having the person checking you in apologize for having to charge you the overweight fee?  Only in Japan!  United and the others would do well to take customer service lessons from those carriers.  Keep the customer pacified and you'll have fewer problems, assuming of course that you are dealing with spoiled brats which is likely fairly often - catch 22 for sure.