open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/99243

Governing by Expertise : Air Traffic Controllers as Professional Administrative Officers

日本語

2026-03-30

Hokkaido University, School of Law

The Hokkaido Law Review

76(6)

971-1004

34

This article examines air traffic controllers as a category of professional administrative officers, synthesising foundational information on their institutional status, recruitment and training systems, personnel management, and international comparisons. Although air traffic controllers in Japan are formally positioned within the national civil service system, the highly specialised, safety-critical, and time-sensitive nature of their work has resulted in a set of exceptional institutional arrangements in compensation, professional development, and organisational design. Reconstructing these features from a public administration perspective, both historical and comparative, this article offers an initial conceptual framework for understanding air traffic controllers as a distinctive form of professional administrative expertise within the Japanese state. This study serves as a preparatory step towards the broader goal of mapping the institutional architecture not only of the air traffic control profession but also of Japan’s specialised administrative occupations. Simultaneously, it identifies important questions for future research. First, considering aviation safety as the overriding policy objective, what organisational and personnel structures are most appropriate for supporting expert practices in air traffic control? Second, how are the institutional arrangements governing recruitment, training, and organisational placement shaped by broader political, bureaucratic, and societal contexts? Third, from the standpoint of public administration scholarship, further empirical investigations into controllers’ career paths, their interactions with adjacent administrative domains, and the institutional dynamics that shape them are needed.

紀要論文

Version of Record

0385-5953

AN00227353