By KENTA NAKAMURA/ Staff Writer
April 25, 2024 at 16:19 JST
Japan Airlines President Mitsuko Tottori and her new hires sail paper airplanes at the company’s entrance ceremony in Tokyo’s Ota Ward on April 1. (Kenta Nakamura)
Mitsuko Tottori is making history as both the first woman and the first former flight attendant to become president of Japan Airlines Co. (JAL).
“If you always think about what is best for the customer, you will always find a breakthrough,” she told 2,600 new employees at the company’s entrance ceremony on April 1, the day she took office as the 14th president.
Valued for her ability to empower employees and maintain open communication with front-line workers, Tottori was chosen to lead the company as its new president.
Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1964, Tottori graduated from junior college and joined Toa Domestic Airlines in 1985, a company that later merged with JAL. For the first three decades, she served as a flight attendant on domestic and international routes, always at the forefront of customer service.
In 2020, Tottori became the head of the cabin crew department, overseeing 8,000 flight attendants. She had planned to convey to her juniors the satisfaction and depth of flight work, but her three-year tenure coincided entirely with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of flights plummeted.
She spent almost every day talking with her subordinates online about shifting grounded employees into other kinds of jobs. This strategy protected the employment of her colleagues while continuing to provide value to society.
Tottori believes that her mission as president is to create an environment where all employees can thrive.
When she joined the company, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law had just been enacted. Many female flight attendants, who were still called stewardesses then, would leave the company upon marriage or childbirth. There was also no re-employment system in place.
Having experienced that era herself, Tottori is now in a position of leadership. She hopes to “embolden and support female employees who are struggling with their career paths by showing them that even someone like me can become president.”
She is determined to set an example that is consistent with her words.
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