{
  "id": 3110803,
  "title": "Foreign Executives Prominent in Japan’s Top Earners List",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/foreign-executives-prominent-in-japans-top-earners-list",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-24T21:00:07.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Nippon.com",
    "slug": "nippon-com",
    "url": "https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h02867/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Foreign executives comprised half of the top 10 highest paid corporate leaders at Japan's listed companies in fiscal 2025, according to a survey conducted by Tokyo Shōkō Research. Joseph DePinto, a former Seven & i Holdings director and CEO of US subsidiary 7-Eleven, topped the list with compensation of ¥13.4 billion. SoftBank Group's Rene Haas and Kioxia Holdings' Stacy J. Smith rounded out the top three, making all three foreign executives.\n\nThe highest-earning Japanese executive was Sony Group's President Totoki Hiroki, with earnings of ¥2.8 billion. The median executive-to-employee pay ratio across all listed firms was 9.7 times in fiscal 2025, a decrease from the previous year's 10.6 times. This disparity was widest at Toyota, where Chairman Toyoda Akio earned ¥1.0 billion, over 100 times the average employee salary of ¥10 million. Including his stock-based compensation, Toyoda's total compensation amounted to ¥2.1 billion, a staggering 210 times greater than his employees' average salary.\n\nWhile employee pay raises have become commonplace at listed companies in recent years, Tokyo Shōkō Research highlighted that executive compensation has seen a rise in noncash remuneration, including performance-linked pay and stock compensation, mirroring Western companies' practices. This trend has widened the gap between executive and employee compensation. In fiscal 2025, 1,345 executives from 606 listed companies received individual annual compensation exceeding ¥100 million, marking a sixth consecutive year of growth and a new high. Hitachi led with 34 executives earning over ¥100 million, followed by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group with 18. Among the top 10 earners, electronics and financial firms represented four each.",
  "summary": "Non-Japanese executives claimed half of the top 10 pay packages among top managers at Japanese-listed companies in fiscal 2025.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}