Japan Airlines’ Top Management Takes 20% Paycut As Apology For Drunk Pilot

When it comes to graciousness, service standards and efficiency, Japanese companies stand at the top in the world.

And when something screws up at the bottom, the top takes responsibility for the incident. Which is probably why there are no “deep-seated cultural issues” in most Japanese companies #justsaying

I mean, just look at the Japanese Railway incidents.

On 17 May, Japanese media, Japan Today, reported that West Japan Railways issued an official apology for one of their trains.

“The great inconvenience we placed upon our customers was truly inexcusable.”

It had left the platform 25 seconds earlier than the stated departure time, causing several passengers to be unable to get on the train.

Over a period of 7 months, a 64-year-old employee of the waterworks bureau in the western city of Kobe was discovered to have left for lunch early 26 times.

He had left 3 minutes before the designated lunch break hour to get a bento for lunch.

The bureau’s senior managers got on television and gave a public apology.

They bowed in front of the camera and apologised for the “deeply regrettable actions” of their employee.

And we thought nothing would top that.

Until this happened.

Drunk Japan Airlines Pilot Arrested For Being ’10 Times Over Limit’

On 1 Nov, a pilot from Japan Airlines was arrested in London before a flight.

The pilot had passed an in-house breathalyser test according to the JAL. However, the bus driver driving the pilot to his plane suspected that something was wrong.

When the pilot had his blood tested, he was found to be 10 times over the alcohol limit.

It was revealed that he had “189 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood”, almost 10 times more than the 20-milligramme limit.

In England, even drinking and driving has a limit of 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

He was immediately arrested by the British police and the plane was delayed by more than an hour.

Japan Airlines President & Top Executives Take Pay Cut as Apology

On 3 Dec, it was reported that the president of Japan Airlines, Yuji Akasaka, and fellow top management executives will be taking a 20% pay cut for three months to apologise for the incident.

In fact, the president had returned 20% of his salary voluntarily despite the pay cut only taking effect from this month onwards.

That’s like taking a four-month pay cut.

Japan Airlines had said that the in-house breathalyser test wasn’t conducted properly and promised to do better in the future.

They will strive “to establish an effective and strict management policy to achieve full compliance at all levels to prevent a recurrence”.

The pilot in the incident was sentenced to a 10-month jail.

Meanwhile in Singapore…

¯\_(ツ)_/¯