Japan Airlines’ former flight attendant rises to the top, a rare thing worldwide
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A former flight attendant in Japan Airlines has risen through the ranks to become its first female President, a rare occurrence in a country where, like in many others in the Far East, paternalistic attitude towards women still runs deep.
The appointment of Mitsuko Tottori as the next President is the first time the flag carrier has given the job to a woman, something also not common in major Japanese firms and in global airlines.
Tottori joined Japan Airlines as a flight attendant in 1985, before working her way up, the BBC reports.
She said she hoped her promotion would give other women the courage to pursue the next step in their careers.
Despite some improvements, very few major airlines have women in senior leadership positions.
Tottori will replace Yuji Akasaka as President on April 1. Akasaka will replace Yoshiharu Ueki as Chairman, the airline’s most senior position.
The appointments come weeks after a Japan Airlines plane crashed with a smaller coastguard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
A “miraculous” evacuation ensured all 379 passengers and crew on board the jet survived, but five of the six crew on the coastguard plane died.
Tottori –who worked in frontline roles before becoming a director for cabin crew in 2015 – said she would prioritise safety.
“I have spent most of my career at the frontline of safety and customer services – that is the cabinet attendants’ division,” she told a press conference.
“Operational safety is the foundation of airlines. I will continue to demonstrate my firm commitment to this principle.”
She also said there were women struggling to progress in their career, and hoped her appointment “can encourage them, or give them the courage to take the next step.”
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Only 12 women lead top 100 airlines
A survey by the aviation specialist website FlightGlobal found that, at the end of 2022 there were 12 women leading the top 100 airlines, up from six a year earlier.
They include Marjan Rintel at Dutch carrier KLM, Annette Mann at Austrian Airlines and Aer Lingus’s Lynne Embleton.
Earlier this January, Joanna Geraghty was appointed Chief Executive of JetBlue Airways, becoming the first female to head a major airline in the United States.
It is also rare for women to lead major companies in Japan.
The government wants a third of leadership positions at major businesses to go to women by 2030, after failing to achieve the goal by 2020.
And it is also urging businesses to appoint at least one woman as an executive by 2025.
Women held 13.2 per cent of management positions in Japan in 2021, the lowest among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The trend suggested “a serious misallocation of human resources,” the OECD said.