The private research firm Tokyo Shoko Research announced a ranking of executive compensation among listed companies, based on financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2026. The top three were executives from SoftBank Group, Kioxia Holdings, and Sony Group, with the highest amount coming to approximately ¥6.1 billion. Of the 1,995 companies surveyed, 387 had executives who received compensation of at least ¥100 million, and the number of executives receiving such compensation reached a record 934.
Some executives saw 15-fold increases
The survey covered 1,995 of the 2,198 listed companies that had filed securities reports by noon on June 26 for the fiscal year ending March 2026.
SoftBank Group director René Haas received the highest amount of executive compensation, at ¥613.9 million. Of this, ¥526.8 million, or more than 80 percent, was stock-based compensation.
Kioxia HD chairman Stacey Smith ranked second, receiving ¥4.431 billion in compensation, approximately 15 times the ¥296 million she received the previous year, marking a substantial increase.
Sony Group president and CEO Yuki Tokitoki ranked third, with ¥2.757 billion. The amount doubled from the previous year, making him the highest-paid Japanese executive.
The company with the most executives receiving at least ¥100 million was
Nineteen executives received compensation of at least ¥1 billion, exceeding the 15 executives recorded the previous year. The firm analyzed that, “In addition to securing talent globally, performance-linked compensation systems have become firmly established, while non-cash compensation such as stock-based compensation has further accelerated the increase in compensation amounts.”
Meanwhile, Hitachi had the largest number of executives receiving compensation of at least ¥100 million, with 34. It was followed by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group with 18, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group with 15, NEC with 14, and Mitsubishi Electric and Olympus with 12 each.
