All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines have jointly released new guidelines to combat harassment and abuse by passengers. They say they have categorized nine types of unacceptable behavior in order to protect employees.
Japan's two biggest carriers released the guidelines on Friday. The nine types of harassment include physical assault, verbal abuse and unreasonable demands. Officials at the companies say such behavior violates the human rights of staff members and prevents them from doing their job.
Miyashita Yoshiko, an All Nippon Airways official, says that some employees face extreme stress and then take long medical leave or even quit.
Kamitsuji Rika, a Japan Airlines official says: "Some customers have demanded employees kneel down and apologize. In other cases, these passengers occupy staff for long periods. They keep repeating the same complaints even after employees have explained the situation and apologized. These types of customers find fault with everything."
ANA and JAL officials say they will strictly respond to reports of harassment, including informing the police.
The companies add that together they received around 600 reports of staff harassment by customers last fiscal year.
The JAL official says the carriers hope other airlines will adopt the guidelines in order to deal with customer harassment through an industry-wide effort.