Becoming a commercial airline pilot in Japan, particularly at major carriers like Japan Airlines (JAL) or All Nippon Airways, (ANA) presents a unique set of steep challenges for women and veterans of the Self-Defense Forces. Japan’s industry, which has just under 2% female pilots, putting it at less than half the 5% international average. Airlines like JAL and ANA still heavily rely on the shinsotsu cadet system, which effectively blocks almost all women. On this track, airlines hire university graduates into lifelong corporate roles, training them up from ground jobs on the tarmac.

The list of reasons why it is so difficult for women to enter the cockpit in Japan stems from a mix of rigid training barriers, corporate rules, and work culture. Only recently have the Japanese government and aviation industry begun to acknowledge that they cannot remedy future pilot shortages without tapping into the female workforce. Although the reasons why are very different, veterans of Japan’s SDF have also been largely prevented from flying with airlines. While talk of reform and modernization has begun, no major change has yet taken place.

The Institutional Problem For Female Flyers In Japan

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The government and corporate pipelines to become a pilot in Japan have historically used criteria that disproportionately excluded women. Firstly, Japan’s sole state-run pilot training facility, the Civil Aviation College in Miyazaki Prefecture, has historically enforced a strict minimum height requirement of 158 cm (5-foot-2-inches). As the average height of Japanese women is below this threshold, a vast portion of the female population was physically disqualified from even being considered.

The admission testing has also emphasized advanced mathematics and high-school-level physics. Young Japanese women have been less encouraged to focus on studies in these fields by educators due to the prevalence of gender tracks in education. Notably, legendary aviator Ari Fuji was rejected by the college due to this rule and had to fund her own training in the United States. She went on to become the first female pilot in command at a Japanese passenger airline in 2010.

Fuji told Japan Forward in an interview earlier this year that even over a decade after flying commercial in Japan, she saw stark examples of prejudice. About ten years ago, she spoke to a mother in the airport who was traveling with her daughter, who told her the girl’s teacher had said women couldn’t be pilots. Fuji was stunned, recounting her feelings with these words:

“Female pilots today have worked just as hard as men, under the same conditions. That kind of prejudice should never exist. I want to tell them that the view from the cockpit is something else entirely. It’s vast and incredibly beautiful.”

To this day, the cockpit culture remains heavily male-dominated. Early female pilots reported facing intense skepticism from male captains who viewed women flying as a novelty rather than a career. Because there are so few female pilots in the country, young girls in Japan rarely see women in the captain’s uniform. Without visible role models, aviation is rarely presented to young girls as a viable career path. Instead, women looking to enter the airline industry are overwhelmingly funneled toward becoming cabin crew or gate agents.

Breaking Into The Boys Club

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Asahi Shimbun reported in 2025, the Ministry of Transport announced that it is eliminating the height requirement starting with the fiscal 2026 admissions cycle, provided applicants can reach the controls. According to the Japan Times, the government has set a target to raise the share of female pilots in Japan to 10% by 2035. Although the national government has stated that it will impose a quota for female recruits at the Civil Aviation College, the school is already pushing back.

The college in Miyazaki that produces 40% of Japan’s commercial pilots is already proposing that the new female quota system should be delayed from its initial 2027 start date to fiscal 2028 or later. This is being driven by claims of reverse discrimination and supposed flight training issues due to the simultaneous expansion of enrollment. The Japan Times reported this comment from a ministry official:

“If the population decline continues, men alone will not be able to meet demand. We want more women to pursue careers as pilots.”

Historically, women only made up about 5% of the student body, according to Asia News. Out of the college’s total annual capacity of 108 students, the government designed a new, non-traditional admissions track covering 30 slots. Inside those 30 slots, 20 are strictly reserved as a female quota. The new quota track was designed to completely scrap written science tests. Instead, it relies on document screening, interviews, and personality-centered evaluations to assess pilot potential.

According to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, the college has had to pause syllabi for larger numbers of students because no flight training was available. Lack of equipment, facilities, staff, and weather delays are cited as the primary causes. This has left students waiting for around 18 months on average to complete training, as per Japan News. The college has proposed expanding training to seven days a week and even sending students overseas for flight lessons, but no solution has been reached.

The Mass Exodus Of Cadets

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Acquiring a Commercial Pilot License via a private domestic flight track in Japan can easily cost upwards of 15 million to 25 million yen. Getting the exact same fundamental hours in the US or Australia can cut that baseline training cost by up to one-third to one-half, according to Reuters. Flight academies in Arizona, Texas, Florida, or South Australia also offer near-perpetual sunshine and stable weather. Students can fly multiple times a day, 300+ days a year, allowing them to condense two to three years of Japanese flight training into 9 to 12 months overseas.

The absolute cost of operating an airplane is dramatically higher inside Japan than it is overseas. Fuel costs alone make hourly aircraft rental rates prohibitively expensive. Training directly inside Japan is incredibly restrictive and inefficient. Going to countries like the United States or Australia provides distinct operational advantages that make the process significantly cheaper and faster.

And there’s the language barrier. The international language of global aviation is English. All international flights, weather data, air traffic control routing, and aircraft manuals are strictly processed in English. By training in an English-speaking country, students are forced to communicate with local air traffic controllers, flight instructors, and mechanics in real time. This builds the necessary high-pressure radio fluency naturally, which is impossible to replicate in a domestic Japanese classroom simulator.

What It All Means For Japan’s Aviation Industry

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The current flight school infrastructure in Japan is highly bottlenecked and unable to scale up quickly enough to meet demand. Japan News reported that of the 7,274 pilots flying for Japan’s major airlines in 2024, there were 2,454 who had graduated from the national college that is struggling to expand. The Japanese government has formed expert panels and acknowledged the crisis, but its lack of rapid, sweeping structural deregulation will likely cause a series of compounding consequences.

Unless there is a change, Japan’s commercial aviation industry faces imminent operational contraction and severe flight caps, as the Japan Times wrote. One of the national economic goals set forth by the government is to reach 60 million tourists by 2035, but without sufficient airline capacity, it is unattainable. Increasing SDF recruitment while simultaneously transitioning military veterans and vastly expanding the number of female pilots are the two best avenues to avert a future pilot shortage crisis.

Airlines will have no choice but to ground aircraft, cut routes, and cancel flights because they lack the required captains to dispatch aircraft. Grounded flights mean fewer international visitors, directly cutting off revenue for regional hospitality, retail, and transit sectors. Regional airports will also become cut off from mainline service as networks are consolidated into only the highest-demand routes.

Why The Veterans Are Being Blocked At Airlines

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The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) only appointed its first female fighter pilot in 2018 after lifting the ban on women in 2015. The SDF started female recruiting in 1993, but restricted jobs for decades. Misa Matsushima originally trained as a transport and rescue pilot and was only able to switch paths and complete her F-15 fighter jet certification after the ban ended. The lack of female representation directly exacerbates what the domestic aviation industry calls the ‘2030 Problem.’ Matsushima faces a double-edged sword, as there are also many hurdles for veterans attempting to join civil aviation.

Veterans of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, including the Japan Maritime and the Air Self-Defense Force, face an entirely different set of hurdles. While Western countries routinely funnel military aviators straight into major commercial cockpits via streamlined transitional pathways, military regulations create significant barriers for SDF pilots trying to make the switch. Specifically, the katsuai system prohibits airlines from ‘poaching’ pilots because the governments invested so much in their training.

While this limitation only lasts until SDF pilots hit a mid-career benchmark or reach the end of their peak combat fitness per medical evaluations, the airlines themselves still don’t recruit many, according to Japan News. Japanese airlines operate on ultra-strict, seniority-based progression systems. Major Japanese airlines are intensely committed to shinsotsu. JAL and ANA prefer to hire 22-year-old college graduates with zero flight experience and mold them from the ground up using specialized Multi-Crew Pilot License training programs.

In the 1960s, a severe shortage of military pilots caused by commercial airlines aggressively hiring them away led to a formal agreement. For decades, major airlines agreed not to hire active or transitioning SDF pilots to avoid compromising national security. While the government occasionally revives highly regulated transfer programs during severe pilot shortages, an SDF pilot cannot simply quit on a whim on a Friday and start at JAL on Monday.