It has emerged this week that Tokyo prosecutors last year indicated a male All Nippon Airways captain over an alleged sexual assault of a female colleague.
The captain in his forties is accused of groping a cabin attendant on the buttocks in October 2023. He was indicated without arrest in March 2025.
It follows an internal investigation by ANA, which claims that it took “strict disciplinary action” against the captain in question.
The penalty for indecent assault is imprisonment of six months to ten years.
While this might seem like a cut-and-dry case of an older man using his authority in the workplace to assault a female colleague, some netizens have provided a different take: that ANA is partly to blame for sexualizing its flight attendants.
They point to this instance where ANA collaborated with leading gravure model Risa Yukihira in a promotion.
The photo shoot dates back to September 2023 (shortly before the alleged groping incident), with Yukihira posing for a Weekly Friday shoot in an ANA cabin crew uniform.
The shoot was probably initiated by the magazine but ANA permitted the use of its uniform and aircraft, turning the shoot effectively into a promo for its brand with a certain demographic.
A viral post on X pointing out the hypocrisy has generated over 5.2 million views as of writing.
Fact is sometimes stranger than fantasy: while Risa Yukihira won’t actually be serving passengers on ANA flights, busty Kei Fubuki worked as a stewardess before making a name in gravure.
A large number of Japanese flight attendants report harassment, including illicit photography by customers.
Flight attendant uniforms are a mainstay of cosplay and sexual role-play costumes in Japan. There are even masturbators with a flight attendant theme.
