Japanese Info

[Ravensdale]

Does anyone have any info regarding flying in Japan - Do the big 3 there hire expats and if so what sort of requirements do they have?

Cheers.

[Nihontraveller]

I have been living in Japan for the last 4 years. In that time I guess I have flown on either JAL/ANA/JAS on average twice a month. Both domestic and international.

In all that time I have never seen a flight crew member who was not Japanese. Even non-Japanese cabin crew are very very few and far between.

I don`t know the official policy but, like all things in Japan, I guess Japanese are (strongly) preferred.

Of course language is another problem. English is not widely spoken and even flight crew seem to have big difficulties in making the in-flight greetings and anouncements in English.

Non-official comment but maybe it helps.

[Ravensdale]

Thanks for info, I did spend a few years studying in japan so speak pretty good japanese. I wonder if that would help. International flights may sometimes have foreign flight crew perhaps?????

[Nihontraveller]

I read in another thread that Air Do (Hokkaido) are employing some non-Japanese pilots so I guess there is some possibility.

I fly JAL or ANA regularly on International flight and only see Japanese crew. You know what the big Japanese corporations are like. Everything depends on having been to the "correct" university etc. etc.

Anyway things are changing slowly here so might be a good time to contact them and ask. (And then try to understand if the answer was actually yes or no).

Gambate!

[civet25]

I fly as a FE for JAL. There are many FEs and few pilots from overseas in JAL. Their subsidary JALways are almost 100% crewed by foreign crew. All based in HNL, nearly all americans. There are few pilots based in LAX and ANC. All foreign pilots are on non-glass cockpit aircrafts. (747 classic and DC10).

Another JAL susidary JALExpress based in Osaka flying 737s are also flown by foreigners. All foreign crew are recruited by IASCO, HACS or PARC, I am not sure whether they are recruiting right now. Try those contract companies.

Let me know if you need forther info.

[Kaptin M]

Yes Ravensdale, the Japanese Airlines employing "gaijin" pilots are: Sky Mark, JAS [Japan Air System], JAL, JEX [JAL Express], and Air Do.

All of the above have ex-pat pilots domiciled in Japan [Tokyo or Osaka], except JAL , who allow their pilots overseas basings.

[Kaptin M]

An addendum to my previous post, most of the expats are employed through agencies, as mentioned by civet25, and the majority commute, eg. 20 days in Japan, 10 days out of the country, although I understand that some of the JAL Express guys are resident in Nippon.

Requirements - ask the agencies [a rough guide would be about 5,000 hrs TT, 1,000 command (of which 500 would need to be on the type you will be flying), current ICAO ATP and medical, good English speaker - and unofficially, an ability to unlearn a lot of what you have, during your past, and the necessity to completely erase the word "WHY", from your vocabulary!], but you will need to obtain a JCAB licence, and pass the medical, which is fairly strict.

[BorneoPilot]

How about a CDN newbie Pilot with less then 250hrs? Chances of working in JPN?
just curious.

[Kaptin M]

I doubt it very much, BP.

Just as some sort of indication as to the availability of jobs for gaijin, Japan's official figures for non-Japanese employees is 2% of the population.

To be brutally honest, if you were to work in Japan - after having been trained, and flown in Canada - as a non-Japanese, you would probably consider hara kiri [Harry Karrie is the popular pronunciation] the easy alternative!

[Ravensdale]

Thanks for the info,

Sounds like there are more opportunities for us Gaijin flying in Nihon that I origionally thought. I'm currently building up my hours flying B190, any turbo prop opportunities do you think or only jet ratings.

Arigato