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Flying high: how Japan Airlines’ first woman leader went from cabin crew to president
- Mitsuko Tottori’s ascent from cabin to boardroom is notable in a country where advancement opportunities are still limited for women
- A fifth of JAL’s 32 executive officers are women, including Tottori. Women account for just 4.7 per cent of executive officers at big Japanese firms
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The seeds of former flight attendant Mitsuko Tottori’s rise to the top of Japan Airlines (JAL) were planted in the aftermath of the carrier’s bankruptcy more than a decade ago.
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Tottori, who rose through the ranks from cabin crew to chief customer officer, takes over as president of JAL in April, becoming one of the few women to lead a major global airline. Qantas has a woman boss, and KLM and Air France are led by women who report to a male group CEO.
That ascent from cabin to boardroom is notable in a country where advancement opportunities are still limited for women: Japan’s gender wage gap is the worst among the Group of Seven countries.
“Her case shows that a woman who started her career from the lowest position could become the head of the firm. It serves as a great model for women’s career development in Japanese companies,” said Kumiko Nemoto, a professor of management at Tokyo’s Senshu University, and author of a book on gender inequality.
While Tottori’s nomination is a sign of change in Japan Inc, it also reflects JAL’s sweeping organisational shift after a turnaround by industrialist Kazuo Inamori following its 2010 bankruptcy.
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