Mitsuko Tottori began her career as a flight attendant in 1985.
Mitsuko Tottori was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Japan Airlines in January. This announcement was hailed as a milestone for women's empowerment but it also sent a shockwave across the country's corporate section as she had started her career as a member of cabin crew. According to the BBC, her rise from a flight attendant to the boss of the airline was such a rare feat that one news outlet described her as "an alien molecule" or a "mutant".
Mitsuko Tottori began her career as a flight attendant in 1985, before working her way up, as per the outlet. Three decades later, in 2015, she was appointed senior director of cabin attendants. She then climbed steadily through the ranks to become president and CEO of Japan Airlines in 2024. She is the first woman to hold this position. With Ms Tottori's appointment, JAL has also joined less than 1% of Japan's top companies led by women.
"Japan is still in a place of establishing the initial goal to increase (the number of) female managers," the 59-year-old told CNN on Wednesday. "I hope that Japan will soon become a place where people are not surprised when a woman becomes a president," she continued.
"We do want to seriously increase the number of (women) managers, and more than that, I think it's important that women themselves want to be active, so I really hope to see more and more of (them) in the future," Ms Tottori added.
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Notably, according to CNN, Ms Tottori is not from the elite group of businessmen that the carrier appointed to its top job. Her background differs vastly from her predecessors. Out of the last 10 men who held the post, 7 were educated at Japan's top university. On the other hand, Ms Tottori is a graduate of a far less prestigious women-only junior college. She attended the two-year Kwassui Women's Junior College in Nagasaki.
Back in January, among the reasons the airline gave for promoting Ms Tottori to a senior position was her "high level of insight and field experience in safe flight operations and service through her career," and during the Covid-19 pandemic she made a "significant contribution to maintaining safe operations".