Japan's biggest airline let a captain fly for years even after he admitted to groping colleague

A Tokyo court sentenced an All Nippon Airways captain to 20 months in prison on July 14 for indecently assaulting a junior flight attendant, a case the airline said was not its to be involved in.

Judge Takao Okawa of the Tokyo District Court found that Ryota Mise, 44, used his influence as a captain to make the woman fear professional retaliation, leaving her unable to signal refusal.

He then touched her buttocks over her clothing multiple times.

The acts took place at a pedestrian crossing, inside a convenience store and in a hotel elevator in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, before dawn on Oct. 10, 2023, according to Sankei Shimbun's account of the ruling.

Okawa called the method bold, despicable and persistent.

ANA is Japan's biggest airline. Its parent company, ANA Holdings, reported record group revenue of JPY2.539 trillion (US$15.7 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2026, against JPY2.013 trillion at rival Japan Airlines, according to the airlines' announcements on April 30.

The flight attendant reported the assault to ANA, and Mise admitted the indecent acts during the airline's internal investigation, Aviation Wire reported.

ANA grounded him for two months from October 2023. It did not demote him. He then returned to flying as a captain.

Tokyo prosecutors indicted him in March 2025 without taking him into custody. Mise informed the company, and ANA imposed no new penalty and kept him in the cockpit.

He was still flying passengers when Mainichi Shimbun reported the indictment on March 25, 2026.

ANA removed him from duty that day, citing the possibility that the coverage could affect his work.

Asked then why the indictment had prompted no fresh sanction, ANA told Aviation Wire it had already imposed the two-month grounding.

The matter was between the flight attendant and the captain, the airline said, and therefore "not something for us to be involved in."

All Nippon Airways (ANA) aircraft at the Tokyo International Airport, commonly known as Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 23, 2020. Photo by Reuters

His lawyers argued the woman had consented or that he believed she had, that a captain holds no authority over cabin crew evaluations, and that she had replied approvingly to a message he sent immediately afterward.

Okawa dismissed that reasoning as conjecture stacked on conjecture, built on a failure to understand the psychology of sex crime victims, Nikkei reported.

He found Mise's account had shifted unreasonably during the trial and lacked credibility.

Mise told the court he believed he had built rapport with the woman at a group dinner and that touching her was permissible mischief, The Japan Times reported.

Okawa called it an unreasonable excuse showing no sincere remorse.

The two had met for the first time on a flight the previous day, before the dinner. The woman testified she could not resist because she did not know what would happen if she did, and because she believed refusing would damage her performance rating.

Speaking through Japan's victim participation system, she told the court she had developed post-traumatic stress disorder and was on extended leave.

She could not forgive a man who had destroyed her life, she said, according to Mainichi.

Okawa noted that Mise had taken no meaningful steps to compensate her during that absence and said an unsuspended term was unavoidable. Prosecutors had sought 30 months.

Mise was convicted of non-consensual indecency, an offense created by the penal code amendment that took effect on July 13, 2023, three months before the incident.

The law enumerates eight circumstances under which a person is deemed unable to form or express refusal, one of them a perpetrator exploiting a position of economic or social influence.

Mise is now removed from all duties, ANA said. The airline said it takes the ruling seriously, that harassment must never happen, and that it will keep working to prevent a recurrence.