SoftBank Group (SBG, 9984.T) director Rene Haas received \u00a56.139 billion in compensation for the fiscal year ended March 2026, topping the rankings of executive pay at Japanese listed companies, according to data compiled by Tokyo Shoko Research. Stock-based compensation accounted for \u00a55.268 billion, or more than 80% of the total, vividly illustrating the expanding trend of non-cash remuneration at global corporations.<\/p>\n
Kioxia Holdings Chairman Stacy Smith followed in second place with \u00a54.431 billion. His compensation surged approximately 15-fold from \u00a5296 million in the previous year, with the performance-linked component believed to have expanded significantly amid Tokyo Electron’s (8035.T) listing and the recovery in the semiconductor market.<\/p>\n
Sony Group (6758.T) President Hiroki Totoki ranked third, recording \u00a52.757 billion \u2014 roughly double the prior year’s figure and the highest among Japanese executives. The strong performance of the entertainment business and overall group earnings growth were reflected in his compensation.<\/p>\n
The survey covered 1,995 of the 2,198 listed companies with fiscal years ending March 2026 that had submitted their annual securities reports by noon on June 26.<\/p>\n
High-Pay Ranks Continue to Broaden<\/p>\n
According to Tokyo Shoko Research, the number of executives earning over \u00a51 billion reached 19, up from 15 in the previous year. The research firm attributed this trend to “the need to secure global talent, coupled with the establishment of performance-linked compensation structures and the accelerating effect of non-cash remuneration such as stock-based pay on overall compensation levels.”<\/p>\n
Among top earners, the proportion of performance-linked and stock-based compensation relative to base salary is becoming increasingly pronounced. In Haas’s case, stock-based pay exceeded 85% of his total compensation. Similarly, for Smith and Totoki, the data reveals that Western-style compensation structures \u2014 which directly link improvements in corporate value to management returns \u2014 are taking root at Japanese companies.<\/p>\n
Hitachi Leads with 34 Executives Earning Over \u00a5100 Million<\/p>\n
In terms of the number of executives receiving \u00a5100 million or more, Hitachi (6501.T) topped the list with 34 individuals. The company has positioned digital transformation (DX) and green energy as growth pillars, securing solid results in fiscal 2026. Generous compensation continues to flow to the management team overseeing its broad business portfolio.<\/p>\n
Japan’s megabanks dominated the subsequent rankings, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T) at 18 executives and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) at 15. NEC (6701.T) followed with 14 executives, while Mitsubishi Electric (6503.T) and Olympus (7733.T) each had 12.<\/p>\n
CompanyExecutives Earning \u00a5100M+Hitachi34Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group18Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group15NEC14Mitsubishi Electric12Olympus12
\nGlobal Competition Drives Pay Levels Higher<\/p>\n
The dominance of foreign-born executives and overseas business heads at the top of this year’s rankings serves as evidence that Japanese companies are fully entering the global competition for international management talent. SBG’s Haas leads Arm’s operations, while Kioxia Holdings’ Smith brings decades of semiconductor industry experience. In both cases, their global market expertise and specialized knowledge appear to have justified the substantial compensation packages.<\/p>\n
At the same time, domestic institutional investors and proxy advisory firms continue to voice strong demands for stricter alignment between pay and performance, as well as greater compensation transparency. As Tokyo Shoko Research’s data demonstrates, with disclosed compensation breakdowns and calculation methodologies becoming critical components of shareholder dialogue, companies will face increasing accountability requirements.<\/p>\n
Executive compensation at Japanese companies is expected to continue converging toward global levels from fiscal 2027 onward. With the battle for talent intensifying particularly in advanced technology fields such as AI and semiconductors, the prevailing view is that further increases in pay levels are inevitable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SoftBank Group (SBG, 9984.T) director Rene Haas received \u00a56.139 billion in compensation for the fiscal year ended March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[158],"tags":[65987,65988,65984,65989,44420,683,2986,65985,65986,65990,65983],"class_list":["post-193386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rene-haas","tag-hiroki-totoki","tag-hitachi","tag-kioxia-holdings","tag-mitsubishi-ufj-financial-group","tag-nec","tag-rene-haas","tag-softbank-group","tag-sony-group","tag-stacy-smith","tag-sumitomo-mitsui-financial-group","tag-tokyo-shoko-research"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117118017597406930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}