Ms. Tottori began her career as a member of cabin crew and was not just the carrier’s first female supervisor.
The headlines read “unusual” and “no way!” to “first woman” and “first former flight attendant.”
She was referred to as “an alien molecule” or “a mutant” on one website, presumably because of her employment at Japan Air System (JAS), a much smaller airline that JAL acquired twenty years prior.
When Ms. Tottori, who is speaking to me from Tokyo, says, “I didn’t know about an alien mutant,” she laughs.
To put it succinctly, she was not one of the select group of businessmen that the carrier had always chosen for its highest position.
Seven of the ten individuals who have held the position in the past were educated at the best university in the nation. Ms. Tottori is a graduate of a junior college for women only, significantly less prestigious.
