Japan Airlines CEO accepts pay cut after drunken crew

Japan Airlines announced that CEO Mitsuko Tottori is taking a temporary 30% pay cut for two months after an “alcohol-related incident” involving cabin crew members. The airline described the case as an “extremely serious management failure,” and also cut pay f

The day before a domestic flight, two cabin attendants drank—then the consequences arrived at the top.

Japan Airlines said last Friday that CEO Mitsuko Tottori will take a temporary pay cut due to an “alcohol-related incident” involving cabin crew members. The airline called it an “extremely serious management failure. ” framing the issue not just as individual misconduct. but as a breakdown that management failed to stop.

A spokesperson for Japan Airlines said Tottori will receive a 30% reduction in monthly compensation for two months “to demonstrate our accountability for this incident.” The airline also announced pay cuts for other leaders tied to safety and cabin operations: two executives in charge of safety and cabin operations will receive 20% pay reductions for one month. while all other directors and executive officers will receive 10% reductions for a month. The spokesperson declined to specify the executives’ compensation.

The actions followed reporting that two cabin attendants drank the day before a domestic flight. Japan Airlines’ own company policy. as reported by Kyodo News. mandates that flight attendants cannot drink beyond a certain time before a flight. One cabin crew member was fired, while another crew member was suspended, the spokesperson said.

“Through these measures, we demonstrate our uncompromising commitment to strengthening our oversight and executing fundamental organizational reform,” the spokesperson said. “We accept full accountability for the structural weaknesses that failed to prevent this incident and for the insufficiency of our previous safety measures.”.

The pay cuts sit inside a wider Japanese corporate pattern: when rank-and-file misconduct erupts. senior leaders sometimes step forward with symbolic financial penalties. Curtis Milhaupt. a Stanford Law School professor who studies Japan’s legal system. said a voluntary pay cut by a senior executive as contrition for employee wrongdoing is part of Japan’s corporate culture. He added that it is a standard feature rather than something required by Japan’s corporate charter or bylaws.

Milhaupt also cautioned that the financial gesture can be more communication than prevention. “It’s simply a way of communicating a sense of responsibility to the public,” he said. “There is plenty of corporate misconduct in Japan, as there is everywhere. So it is doubtful that these expressions of remorse effectively deter misconduct.”.

Still, the public record shows how often the combination of apology and salary reductions follows serious incidents tied to employees. In December 2024, Kentaro Okuda, CEO of Nomura Holdings, held a press conference to apologize for misconduct by a former employee. Reuters reported that Okuda took a pay cut for three months after the former employee was charged with several crimes. including attempted murder and robbery; other senior managers also took pay cuts.

More recently, executives at MUFG Bank, Japan’s largest bank, took a three-month pay reduction in January 2025 after an employee was accused of stealing $9 million in valuables from customers’ deposit boxes, The Associated Press reported.

In Japan Airlines’ case, the company’s disciplinary approach is straightforward in its message: oversight is on trial. With Tottori’s 30% reduction for two months—along with reductions for safety and cabin leaders. and for directors and executive officers—the airline is turning a cabin-level failure into a board-level reckoning.

Japan Airlines Mitsuko Tottori pay cut cabin crew alcohol incident flight attendants safety oversight corporate accountability MUFG Nomura Holdings