At Japan Airlines, bankruptcy helped lay groundwork for first female boss

The seeds of former flight attendant Mitsuko Tottori's rise to the top of Japan Airlines were planted in the aftermath of the carrier's bankruptcy more than a decade ago. 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 (G7) 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. Inamori, the founder of electronics company Kyocera and mobile operator KDDI who died in 2022, was tapped by the government to revive JAL. Known in Japan as the "God of management", the ordained Buddhist monk prized hands-on experience and said the carrier long neglected customers. Story has more.<br/>