In a league of her own: A Japanese F-15 pilot guarding the northern skies
Capt. Momoka Fujii, call sign "Jasmine," is among the few women piloting fighter aircraft in Japan. | Air Self-Defense Force
Sep 8, 2026
In Hollywood, the archetype of the fast-jet aviator is Tom Cruise’s Maverick in “Top Gun” — a reckless, rules-defying hotshot. At Chitose Air Base, that job belongs to 31-year-old Capt. Momoka Fujii, call sign “Jasmine.”
As one of a tiny minority of female pilots flying front-line combat jets in the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF), Fujii spends her days in the cockpit of an F-15 Eagle guarding Japan’s northern flank, where split-second decisions carry international consequences.
Yet when asked if the high-flying Hollywood image matches her daily reality, she quickly sets the record straight.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information,
quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.