Japan Press Weekly

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2016 June 29 - July 5 [ECONOMY]

Number of executives paid more than one hundred million yen hits record high under Abenomics

The number of corporate executives earning more than one hundred million yen a year hit a record high of 414. This indicates a growing income inequality as workers’ real wages have been declining for five consecutive years, Akahata reported on July 5.

Based on financial statements for the fiscal year ending in March 2016, a private credit research firm, Tokyo Shoko Research, found that 414 executive officers in 211 companies received compensation of more than one hundred million yen. The figure greatly increased under the Abe administration from 301 executives in 175 companies in the fiscal year ending in March 2013.

The three highest earners were non-Japanese. Nikesh Arora, former president of the communications giant Softbank, obtained a record high of 6.5 billion yen in salary, followed by the retail titan Seven & i Holdings Director Joseph Michael DePinto (2.2 billion yen) and Softbank Director Ronald Fisher (2.1 billion yen). Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn ranked 5th, receiving 1.1 billion yen.

Those companies which provided many executives with huge amounts of compensation are mainly major exporters and securities companies as they have greatly benefitted from the weak yen and higher stock prices which were induced by the “Abenomics” economic policy. The number of executives paid more than one hundred million yen totaled 23 for Mitsubishi Electronic, eight for Toyota Motor, and seven each for securities companies Nomura Holdings and Daiwa Securities Group.


Past related articles:
> Pay gaps between company executives and workers growing [July 29, 2014]