Photo/Illutration Yuji Akasaka, left, the incumbent president of Japan Airlines Co., and Mitsuko Tottori, the incoming president, stand in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward on Jan. 17. (Go Takahashi)

Japan Airlines Co. on Jan. 17 appointed a former flight attendant as its next president, the first time that a woman or a former cabin crew member has risen to the top position at the airline. 

Mitsuko Tottori, 59, a senior managing executive officer, will assume the post on April 1.

After graduating from the former Kwassui Women’s Junior College in Nagasaki in 1985, she joined Toa Domestic Airlines, which later merged with JAL.

In August that year, JAL faced the world’s deadliest single-aircraft crash. One of the company’s jumbo jets slammed into a mountainous area in Gunma Prefecture, claiming 520 lives.

“The impact of that time has stuck with me intensely,” Tottori said at a news conference on Jan. 17. “I have a strong sense of responsibility to pass on the importance of safe flight operations to the next generation.”

She has served as the head of the cabin attendants and customer experience divisions at JAL.

Her appointment comes soon after a collision between a JAL passenger plane and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft on a runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Jan. 2. The accident killed five Coast Guard members, but all passengers and crew from the JAL jet were safely evacuated.

“Safety, which is the foundation of an airline, and service are everything in my career,” Tottori said. “We would like to continue to operate each and every flight while prioritizing our customers.”

Tottori will replace Yuji Akasaka, 62, who has been in the post since 2018. He said he decided to step down since the company’s management recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is in sight.

Akasaka will become the company’s chairman with representative authority in April.

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