OSAKA — Ari Fuji was not deterred when she was deemed too small for admission to the government-affiliated pilot training school. Instead, she went to the United States to get a pilot's license and became Japan's first female captain for commercial passenger flights this month.
Fuji, 42, now dons a short-sleeve uniform of JAL Express Co. with four gold stripes, one more than during her first-officer years. "I feel the weight of one stripe added," a nervous-looking Fuji said after her appointment ceremony at the company's Osaka headquarters on July 9.
She is the only woman among about 3,800 aircraft captains in Japan and one of the three among around 300 pilots working for JAL Express, which operates regional flights chiefly to and from Osaka.