Misa Matsushima

Okay, I'll be honest — when I first came across Misa Matsushima, I figured she was an actress or a model, but no: she's an actual fighter pilot in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. A combat-qualified fighter pilot. I had to sit with that for a second. Inspired partly by Top Gun, she went through the National Defense Academy and became the first woman in Japan to fly fighters — something most people couldn't even qualify to attempt. I don't hand out respect easily, but this woman has mine without even trying.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Misa Matsushima is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force officer and fighter pilot born in 1991 in Fukuoka Prefecture. She graduated from the National Defense Academy of Japan. Raised in Yokohama, she graduated in 2014 as part of the academy's 58th class, earned her pilot's license in October 2016, and became Japan's first female fighter pilot; she now goes by her married name, Misa Ito.

Name (English)

Misa Matsushima

Name (Japanese)

松島美紗

Reading

いとう みさ

Born

1991

Origin

Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Japan Air Self-Defense Force officer / Fighter pilot

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Goat

University

National Defense Academy of Japan

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%BE%E5%B3%B6%E7%BE%8E%E7%B4%97
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56250227

Tags

• From Fukuoka Prefecture
• Japan Air Self-Defense Force officer
• Fighter pilot

Last updated

September 25, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.