Japan’s two largest commercial airlines are tightening policies against passengers who verbally or physically abuse flight attendants.
Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways updated their websites on Friday with “anti-customer harassment” policies, following a rise in abuse of frontline workers across multiple industries in Japan.
Using similarly worded language, the two airlines cited nine acts that constitute “harassment” under the policies, including:
- Abusive language, aggressive tone, insults, discrimination, defamation
- Threatening words or actions
- Excessive or unreasonable demands
- attack
- Conduct that disrupts business operations (prolonged detention, excessively repetitive requests or complaints)
- No entry to the workplace
- Behaviors that deceive their employees
- Defamation of the company or its employees on social media and the internet
- sex
ANA’s Anti-Customer Harassment Policy also included stalking, stalking and indecent behavior — a jarring reminder of the situations airline employees can face in an industry that often see tourists behave worst.
Yoshiko Miyashita, vice president of CS promotion, customer experience management at ANA, said the policies are aimed at addressing a lack of clear standards that makes it difficult for employees to handle interactions with customers. Nikkei Asia.
“This has placed a significant burden on our staff, resulting in some forced redundancies,” she said.
Japan Airlines Policy It also requires airline employees to undergo harassment training — employees will be given detailed instructions on how to respond quickly and appropriately to “malicious” behavior.
According to the airline, “We have also set up a post-flight physical and mental health support service for our employees.”
Both airlines’ policies state that passengers who harass employers will be warned, then possibly denied boarding and subject to police intervention.
What about you, Japan?
In the United States, air rage incidents spiked from about 10 per month before the pandemic to about 500 per month in 2021 — the majority of them related to mask compliance, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Incidents have dropped sharply since then, but “the recent increase shows there is still much work to be done,” according to FAA Website.
Virus-related ‘air rage’ incidents do not occur at the same rate on Asian airlines like their Western counterparts, where a steady stream of in-flight meltdowns continues to occur, despite baby crying And flight regulations to one wandering eyes of husband.
But that doesn’t mean airlines based in Asia aren’t affected by these passengers, either — even in Japan, which has been called a the most polite country in the world and a quality defined by the “Four Ps”: politeness, patience, punctuality and accuracy.
On June 5, a Japanese passenger caused a 40-minute delay on an Eva Air flight departing from Fukuoka City after she yelled at China Airlines staff. because I can’t speak my native language.
In January, an ANA flight returned to Tokyo after a drunken passenger bit a flight attendant, according to The Japan Times. However, the passenger was said to be a middle-aged American man.
Amid rising cases of customer harassment in Japan, cities and companies are taking stricter measures to protect their employees.
Some city and provincial governments are Remove employee names and photos from their name tags to prevent employees’ personal images and information from being leaked online, according to local media.
