JAL announces changes to board, executive members following pilot sobriety case

After reducing its top management members’ pay over a pilot drinking incident, the JAL Group announced changes to its board and executive members.

The group said that the changes were decided on following a board meeting on February 4, 2025.

“The JAL Group will strive in unity towards ensuring the highest level of safety in all flight operations, continue to improve the quality of the products and services to our valued customers, and raise its corporate value and contribute to the growth and development of society,” the group said in a statement.

The changes and new assignments are as follows:

AKASAKA YujiCurrent position: Representative Director-ChairpersonNew position: Representative Director-ChairpersonCurrent assignment: Chair of Board Meetings and Chief Safety OfficerNew assignment: Chair of Board Meetings 

NAKAGAWA Yukio Current position: Executive OfficerNew position: Managing Executive OfficerCurrent assignment: Senior VP – ProcurementNew assignment: Senior VP – Corporate Safety and Security, Family Assistance and Support Chief Safety Officer

TACHIBANA MunekazuCurrent position: Managing Executive OfficerNew position: Executive OfficerCurrent assignment: Senior VP – Corporate Safety and Security, Family Assistance and SupportNew assignment: Special Assistant to the President

OGAWA NorikoNew appointmentPosition: Executive OfficerAssignment: Senior VP – Procurement and Deputy Senior VP – General Affairs

In January 2025, local media outlets announced that the group would reduce pay for two top executives by 30% for two months over a December 2024 drinking incident involving JAL pilots. The media named two of these executives as JAL President Mitsuko Tottori and Chairperson Yuji Akasaka.

Three other executives from the airline’s flight operations and safety management divisions have also been given disciplinary actions. 

On December 1, 2024, flight JL 774 was scheduled to fly out from Melbourne Airport (MEL) to Tokyo’s Narita Airport (NRT), when two pilots tested above the alcohol limit, resulting in the flight being delayed for more than three hours.

In 2018, some JAL managers took pay cuts of up to 20% for a three-month period after a pilot showed up for a flight from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Tokyo with excessive alcohol in his system. The pilot was subsequently jailed. One of the top executives involved at the time was Akasaka.

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