The reason why a captain in his 40s suddenly resigned
Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2025 9:27 am
At the end of August, JAL and the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan, the trustee, submitted a rehabilitation plan to reduce the group's workforce by about 16,000 by the end of March 2011. Voluntary retirements were gradually solicited, but pilots and cabin attendants were not able to apply for the offer. As a result, a total of 165 employees, including 81 pilots and 84 flight attendants, were laid off on December 31, 2010.
>>Click here for the table of contents of the "JAL Stewardess Emergency Roundtable"
I retired early at the end of November last year. I'm in my remove background image 40s and no one in my generation has ever retired before. I made the decision just a few days before the deadline, so it came as a complete surprise to my family. They said they neither supported nor opposed the move, but I'm sure they were worried.
Many of the captains who retired this time were in their 50s, and those approaching 60 probably made the decision after calculating the amount of their retirement benefits and the number of years they will work in the future. Some people say that they should simply give up their seats to their juniors. Not only age, but people who have been absent from work for more than 60 days due to illness are eligible for early retirement even if they are young. However, pilots can be put on leave just for breaking their pinky finger. Return to work requires an examination, which is only once a month, so two months goes by in the blink of an eye. I thought it was unreasonable to give such people a blank schedule and pressure them to quit.
Why did you quit? It's difficult to answer in one word. My license is for the 747-400, a large aircraft, which will disappear from Japan this year, including ANA. If I get a license for a small aircraft again, I will be able to continue flying for JAL.
However, I thought about what I could contribute to JAL's future recovery. I could stay and work hard. However, when a flight attendant quits a small plane, it leaves a gap, but that doesn't happen with a flight attendant on a jumbo jet. I thought quitting without making a fuss was also an option.
There are people who are working hard, so I want to be of help... but I want to be of help to those people, not to the bosses who are happily staying on without doing any work. Because I think that in the end, a company is about people.
No matter what happens above, the people on the ground only think about making the flight safe and comfortable, and doing their best. It doesn't matter if the pay is low or the management is bad. They're kind of craftsmen.
Fortunately, I was able to get a job with an Asian company through the union's reemployment support, and I will be moving overseas from February. JAL captains will also have a 40% cut in their average annual income to 12 million yen, but I will also be making about half of what I was making before. But I don't think work is about money, so I will do my best.
>>Click here for the table of contents of the "JAL Stewardess Emergency Roundtable"
I retired early at the end of November last year. I'm in my remove background image 40s and no one in my generation has ever retired before. I made the decision just a few days before the deadline, so it came as a complete surprise to my family. They said they neither supported nor opposed the move, but I'm sure they were worried.
Many of the captains who retired this time were in their 50s, and those approaching 60 probably made the decision after calculating the amount of their retirement benefits and the number of years they will work in the future. Some people say that they should simply give up their seats to their juniors. Not only age, but people who have been absent from work for more than 60 days due to illness are eligible for early retirement even if they are young. However, pilots can be put on leave just for breaking their pinky finger. Return to work requires an examination, which is only once a month, so two months goes by in the blink of an eye. I thought it was unreasonable to give such people a blank schedule and pressure them to quit.
Why did you quit? It's difficult to answer in one word. My license is for the 747-400, a large aircraft, which will disappear from Japan this year, including ANA. If I get a license for a small aircraft again, I will be able to continue flying for JAL.
However, I thought about what I could contribute to JAL's future recovery. I could stay and work hard. However, when a flight attendant quits a small plane, it leaves a gap, but that doesn't happen with a flight attendant on a jumbo jet. I thought quitting without making a fuss was also an option.
There are people who are working hard, so I want to be of help... but I want to be of help to those people, not to the bosses who are happily staying on without doing any work. Because I think that in the end, a company is about people.
No matter what happens above, the people on the ground only think about making the flight safe and comfortable, and doing their best. It doesn't matter if the pay is low or the management is bad. They're kind of craftsmen.
Fortunately, I was able to get a job with an Asian company through the union's reemployment support, and I will be moving overseas from February. JAL captains will also have a 40% cut in their average annual income to 12 million yen, but I will also be making about half of what I was making before. But I don't think work is about money, so I will do my best.