Emergency landing: Slumping salaries push flight attendants into part-time prostitution

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, salaries for Japan’s flight attendants have slumped significantly over the past decade.

From 2004 to 2013, the average annual wage of a stewardess, aged between 25 and 29, dropped from 4.98 million to 3.91 million yen, the report said.

This has lead to some stewardesses engaging in a selection of sultry services on the side, reports Shukan Post (Dec. 26), which provides a number of confessionals.

A 30-year-old attendant tells the magazine that rumors of a “prostitution circle” had begun several years before she joined an airline in 2007.

“Girls willing to do it with a pilot passed their number to a person who was effectively a female pimp,” says the stewardess. “I heard that the going rate was between 50,000 and 80,000 yen per session.”

When upper management got wind of the operation, the ringleader was terminated. “But since the girls in the circle at the time are still employed at the company, I’m sure it still goes on even now,” she continues.

But one’s age is crucial. “We have an expiration date,” says a 29-year-old who resembles actress Misaki Ito.

After studying her sempai (or mentor), the stewardess realized one’s value diminishes substantially after the age of 30. She is currently enrolled at a “delivery health” out-call sex service that specializes in stewardesses.

“Of course, I never imagined that I’d do this kind of thing,” she confides to Shukan Post. But the fees are highly alluring: A 90-minute session requires an outlay of 60,000 yen.

According to the magazine, other stewardesses may take up part-time work as party companions or bar hostesses in Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza district.

Another stewardess, 30, who has a striking likeness to actress Kyoko Fukada, says that independent options are also readily available.

During pre-flight checks, the stewardesses line up before the pilot an co-pilot. As the briefing proceeds, the pilots will drop signals with their fingers. As an example, four digits raised to his nose is an offer of 40,000 yen for an overnight stay at a hotel, or so says the stewardess.

“This is not unusual for domestic flights on small and medium-sized planes,” she says. “Since accommodations can be scarce, there’s a good chance that the pilots and stewardesses will use the same hotel. So it doesn’t seem suspicious, and the chances of a leak are smaller.”

Apparently, sharing stories about such trysts is the norm, even inside a large locker room at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

“Not long ago, one gal, in a loud voice, started grumbling about how she only got 60,000 yen from two guys over three nights,” says the stewardess.

Perhaps she should be the one doing the fingering, so to speak?

Source: “Geneki CA-tachi ga sekirara kokuhaku ‘watashitachi, 4 hon’yubi de daka retemasu,'” Shukan Post (Dec. 26, pages 162-165)