Japan Airlines has just appointed a new president, and she has a unique background…
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Tottori Mitsuko appointed president of Japan Airlines
Japan Airlines has announced that as of April 1, 2024, 59-year-old Tottori Mitsuko will become the company’s new president. Akasaka Yuji, the company’s current president, will become chairperson of JAL Group (as the current chairperson retires from that role).
There are a couple of things that make Mitsuko’s appointment noteworthy. For one, she’ll be the first-ever female president of a major Japanese airline, so that’s pretty cool.
Perhaps what’s even more interesting is her professional background. Mitsuko has been at Japan Airlines since 1985, so she started there when she was 20 years old, and is about to celebrate her 40th anniversary at the company.
Mitsuko spent 20 years as a flight attendant at the airline, as she held that role from 1985 until 2005. Since then, she has worked in a variety of management roles. From 2005 to 2022, she worked in roles primarily related to flight attendants and cabin safety. Then in 2023, she took on an executive role in customer experience and brand communication. 
This is an interesting executive appointment
First of all, it’s nice to see a company appoint such a loyal and long serving employee to lead the airline. Nearly 40 years is a very long time to work at one place, and it’s especially cool that she has spent over half of her career working in customer facing roles.
The company explains that with this change in management, it “will strive in unity towards ensuring the highest level of safety in all flight operations, continue to improve the quality of the products and services to valued customers, and raise its corporate value and contribute to the growth and development of society.”
Now, there’s no denying that her work experience is unconventional when it comes to leading an airline. Her experience has been pretty heavily focused on employees, safety, and customer experience. That’s in contrast to most executives we see appointed, who might more experience with pricing, network planning, legal, etc.
I can’t help but wonder if this appointment might have something to do with Japan Airlines’ recent A350 accident at Tokyo Haneda. After all, her experience is heavily focused on flight attendants and cabin safety, and the first priority is explained as ensuring “the highest level of safety in all flight operations.”
I imagine it’s really inspiring to a lot of frontline employees to see “one of them” appointed to role of president, so I’m excited to see how the airline does under her leadership.
Bottom line
Japan Airlines has appointed Tottori Mitsuko as the company’s new president. Not only is she the first female president of a Japanese airline, but she has also been incredibly loyal, and has worked at the company for nearly 40 years. She spent more than half of her career working as a flight attendant, and since then, she has largely been in roles related to managing flight attendants and cabin safety.
What do you make of Japan Airlines’ new president?
Ben you have her name reversed
Actually think this is a wonderful appointment and wish Tottori Mitsuko the best of luck in this and really hope she succeeds! I think cabin crew actually have a lot of unique insight into how an airline works day to day in running flights and I think more airlines could do well by promoting their crew into senior management positions. Like at BA you have management completely disconnected from the reality of operating flights and...
Actually think this is a wonderful appointment and wish Tottori Mitsuko the best of luck in this and really hope she succeeds! I think cabin crew actually have a lot of unique insight into how an airline works day to day in running flights and I think more airlines could do well by promoting their crew into senior management positions. Like at BA you have management completely disconnected from the reality of operating flights and quite often terrible decisions are made purely based on projected economics that actually prove unworkable and end up costing more money while making life also hell for crew.
Good for JAL to appoint someone with this background to lead the airline.
It is also noteworthy as she first joined Toa Domestic Airlines in 1985 - later renamed as Japan Air Systems (JAS) which merged with (original) Japan Airlines in 2004 and the first CEO of JAL from former JAS employees.
It is like former USAir FA became CEO of AA.
The last three CEOs of JAL also came up from line positions. Two mechanics and a pilot. Pretty common in Japan with its lifetime employment system.
Tottori became SVP during the height of the pandemic and ran a wildly successful program to loan out cabin attendants to other companies while most JAL flights were not operating. Now JAL is going back into expansion mode and needs more people. Having a female CEO who rose from...
The last three CEOs of JAL also came up from line positions. Two mechanics and a pilot. Pretty common in Japan with its lifetime employment system.
Tottori became SVP during the height of the pandemic and ran a wildly successful program to loan out cabin attendants to other companies while most JAL flights were not operating. Now JAL is going back into expansion mode and needs more people. Having a female CEO who rose from a line job will be immensely good for recruiting, especially when it comes to persuading ambitious young women to apply.
There is also a massive push in Japan to promote more women into executive positions, which the government and institutional investors are supporting, so JAL is kind of going along with the times.
Pablo
We are talking about CEO of a major global airline with 1000s of staff, huge assets etc not base manager of a bunch of FAs in Indy or even DFW…..
Oh yeah? How are the CEOs of UA, AA, and DL treating ya? Why do taxpayers have to bail them out often if these CEOs are so smart in management?
Deal with your problems first; JAL knows what they are doing.
Imagine this in the U.S. that a FA becomes CEO?
1. Serve nothing to passengers, just barricade the galley and ignore them.
2. Safety? Just go on the intercom and say you need passengers to step up and administer whatever is needed adding, "I'm not paid for this."
3. Personal Hygiene and appearance would be optional. Clogs mandatory. Looking at your phones instead of thanking passengers a requirement.
4. If you ask...
Imagine this in the U.S. that a FA becomes CEO?
1. Serve nothing to passengers, just barricade the galley and ignore them.
2. Safety? Just go on the intercom and say you need passengers to step up and administer whatever is needed adding, "I'm not paid for this."
3. Personal Hygiene and appearance would be optional. Clogs mandatory. Looking at your phones instead of thanking passengers a requirement.
4. If you ask for anything, you are off the aircraft. Banned. If you complain being removed, you will be shot on arrival.
5. All call buttons will be removed.
Japanese airlines and Japan, despite the narrative, are not exactly known for their safety record.
Last two major airline incidents? Japan.
One. Last one was in the USA although no deaths. What was the second major incident ?
The last fatal accident for Japanese airlines was in 1997, then 1985 which was mainly caused by a faulty repair by Boeing technicians. Before THAT was 1982, which was due to the pilot's mental health.
If we take JAL incidents
2024 landing incident, cause being investigated
2020 PW engine blade failure on a 777-200
2018 787 battery fire on the ground in Boston
2001 in air near miss incident
1997...
The last fatal accident for Japanese airlines was in 1997, then 1985 which was mainly caused by a faulty repair by Boeing technicians. Before THAT was 1982, which was due to the pilot's mental health.
If we take JAL incidents
2024 landing incident, cause being investigated
2020 PW engine blade failure on a 777-200
2018 787 battery fire on the ground in Boston
2001 in air near miss incident
1997 abrupt altitude change on approach, 1 fatality and 20 injuries
1991 burst pipe in the pressurisation system leading to a hole in fuselage
1985 JAL flight 123 loss of all lives.
I am not being too worried about the airline safety in Japan. But can you give us some specific examples?
What the heck are you talking about? It's not exactly known for safety because of 1 runway accident in the last 27 years... really?
Are you this dumb or blind not to know about the Boeing 737 MAX fiascos, being responsible for killing hundreds of passengers, or safety issues with Alaska and UA? As far as I know, Boeing is an American product!
We hired four tour guides in Kyoto and Tokyo who were all engineers for Japan's global iconic companies, such as Sony and Nintendo. One was a nuclear engineer. They all took early retirement last decade and now work as a tour guide to supplement their income. Japanese workers used to enjoy " cradle to grave" employment. I guess after Japan was mired in deep recession in the 1990s for over a decade, big companies adapted...
We hired four tour guides in Kyoto and Tokyo who were all engineers for Japan's global iconic companies, such as Sony and Nintendo. One was a nuclear engineer. They all took early retirement last decade and now work as a tour guide to supplement their income. Japanese workers used to enjoy " cradle to grave" employment. I guess after Japan was mired in deep recession in the 1990s for over a decade, big companies adapted to the new economic reality and changed their employment policies. This is where East meets West to cherish capitalism. It is now a common practice that companies, especially high tech, will offer their employees severance package when they are in their mid 40s. Except in union workplaces. So basically, we have two decades of full employment after racking up six digit student loan debt? Not enough time to pay off student loan debt, mortgage, child's college costs and to build a retirement nest egg. We live and work in a cruel, twisted and exploited world.
lol ok, have fun trying to be a “globetrotter” in a non-capitalist world.
1985 -> 2005: flight attendant -> manager
2005 -> 2024: manager -> CEO
dang
Lol I noticed that too. After 20 years, “hey you’ve been promoted to manager!”
There is no such thing as a promotion from flight attendant to manager. Flight attendants who tire of the job or want to try something else apply for other roles within the company.
Every airline has management positions within the Cabin Crew and In-Flight Service areas of the organization. It is actually quite frequent for senior FAs to reach management positions in those areas.