Ari Fuji (藤 明里) is the first female pilot in command and flight instructor at a commercial passenger airline in Japan. She earned her original aviation license in the United States of America and trained to be a certified pilot for commercial passenger airlines under Japanese aviation regulations. Ari Fuji grew up near Yokota Air Base, United States Air Force in Japan and aspired to become a pilot for a commercial airline. However, when she applied to the national Civil Aviation College an Independent Administrative Institution regulated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, they rejected her request to take the entry examination, reasoning that she was too short to qualify. After graduating from Toho Gakuen Girls' High School and Rikkyo University School of Law in Tokyo, Japan, she chose to work at a company in Japan, saved enough to study at a pilot training school in the United States of America obtaining her aviator's license. After returning home, she applied for the Japanese aviation certificate while she worked at a company, to be licensed as an aviator under Japanese aviation regulations. "There were many men who told me it's impossible to become a pilot in Japan -- especially a commercial airline pilot. I never asked them why but I think they were saying 'no way' just because there were no women at that moment." Fuji eventually made her way into the trainee program at JAL Express -- a subsidiary of Japan Airlines. That opportunity paved the way for her to make history. In 2010, she became Japan's first female commercial airline captain. Despite the achievement, donning the captain's four stripes put her under a lot of pressure. "Every time before training, I would say in the mirror: 'I am the captain,'" Fuji recalls. "On the outside, I felt I could never show weakness. The last thing I wanted to hear from people if I failed was that it is still too hard out there for women." With the new role came changes for Fuji and the people around her. "People, especially older pilots, weren't used to a female captain and had little idea of how to interact with me," says Fuji. "When I got married, a year after becoming a co-pilot, another pilot said to me, 'You've become a pilot, your dream job, and got married. Why don't you quit now?' I was like, 'what?!' I guess he thought that as a woman, I was just doing this as a hobby." With additional flight hours over 600 and maintained outstanding performance at regular PIC sessions, as well as instructor pilot qualification, and in August 2015, certified as a training pilot aged 47, another first record for a woman in aviation industry to open doors for women. She has been the only woman PIC in Japan as of 2015 and commanded every Doll Festival flight each March 3, when JAL appointed an all-woman flight operation team including ground staff, mechanics and crews. For Haneda - Komatsu line, JAL flew the first Doll Festival flight on 3 March 2016.

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