Cabin crew error costs Japan Airlines CEO 30% salary cut — But it's not new to Japanese corporates

To “demonstrate accountability,” Mitsuko Tottori, the Chief Executive Officer of Japan Airlines, will take a 30% cut in her monthly salary for two months following a recent “alcohol-related incident” involving its cabin crew members, according to a report.

Business Insider reported on Friday that the airlines called the incident “an extremely serious management failure,” adding that two executives in charge of safety and cabin operations will receive 20% pay reductions for one month.

All other directors and executive officers will receive 10% reductions for a month, a Japan Airlines spokesperson told BI.

What was the incident?

The disciplinary actions came after two cabin attendants drank the day before a domestic flight, despite company policy prohibiting drinking beyond a certain time before a flight, according to Kyodo News.

The spokesperson told BI that one cabin crew member was fired, while another crew member was suspended for disregarding the policy.

“Through these measures, we demonstrate our uncompromising commitment to strengthening our oversight and executing fundamental organisational 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.”

Japanese corporate culture

Docking a CEO's salary to show accountability for an employee's mistake is a standard practice in Japanese corporate culture.

In some cases, top-level executives could be expected to resign, Curtis Milhaupt, a Stanford Law School professor with expertise on Japan's legal system, told Business Insider.

“A voluntary pay cut by a senior executive as a sign of contrition for employee misconduct is a standard feature of Japanese corporate culture,” he said, “not a requirement stipulated in the corporate charter or bylaws.”

Several senior executives in Japan have previously taken salary cuts following employee misconduct.

In December 2024, Kentaro Okuda, the head of Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings, apologised and took a pay cut for three months after a former employee was charged with several crimes, including attempted murder and robbery, according to a Reuters report. Other senior managers also took pay cuts.

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

Milhaupt said that such financial disciplinary actions, while not uncommon in Japan, are often more symbolic than a foolproof measure to stop corporate misconduct.

“It's simply a way of communicating a sense of responsibility to the public,” Milhaupt 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.”

At the very least, corporate accountability in Japan comes with a pay cut and an apology.