Japan Airlines announced this week that it will no longer use gender-exclusive language in its announcements beginning in October. Instead of addressing customers during flights by referring to them as “ladies and gentlemen,” employees will instead say over the intercom: “Attention all passengers.”
According to a spokesperson for the airline, Japan Airlines plans to “abolish expressions that are based on” a binary definition of sex and instead “use gender-friendly expressions like ‘good morning’ and ‘good evening.’”
The rollout of gender-neutral terms represents a slow but steady move in the right direction for major airlines. At this time last year, Air Canada made the decision to ditch gendered greetings, followed shortly after by fellow Canadian airline EasyJet, which switched their protocols after being called out by Andi Fugard, a lecturer and self-described “them fatale” on Twitter.
Although the airline denied making the change in reaction to the response on Twitter, EasyJet nevertheless adopted gender-neutral language shortly after.
The changes could be a hopeful sign of things to come for trans and nonbinary travelers. Traveling while queer has always been a challenge for trans folks, who often must risk humiliating TSA checks, scanners that aren’t designed with their bodies in mind, and the threat of being outed by gendered language in the process of air travel.
Japan Airlines’ recent announcement is especially notable in light of embedded cultural norms surrounding gender. As recently as this year, female Japan Airlines flight attendants were made to wear high heels and skirts to work as part of a strict, gendered dress code. Only after protest from the feminist #KuToo movement did the airline relent, making a decision in March to start allowing women to wear pants and comfortable shoes on its planes. (“KuToo” translated means simply “shoe suffering.”)
Before #KuToo, many professional women in Japan suffered under mandatory dress codes involving uncomfortable shoes. Since the movement started last year, the tyranny of the high heel has become a symbol of sexism and gendered oppression in Japan.
In addition to the subjugation women in Japan must face, folks in the LGBTQ+ community are actively discriminated against in schools and in the workplace, with transgender citizens still being classified as mentally ill. A 2004 law mandates the sterilization of transgender people before gender confirmation treatment can be accessed. While homosexuality isn’t actively criminalized, it isn’t viewed as a protective class, either.
Recently the Mie district became Japan’s first prefecture to make outing illegal.
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