It's called his increased stock options just shot up huge on the press release... I'd check the insider trading to see how much he bought before, and after the press release....

Why stop this at the CEOs?

Under this logic, the Captain is in charge of the airplane, so why doesn't do the "honorable" thing and make no more than the jr FA on the plane?

Wait? Those with more reponsibilty are, and ought to be, better compensated. A CEO has more overall responsibilty than a CA. If a poor performing CEO should make less money than shouldn't a poorly peforming Captain make less money too?

Ehhhhh, not quite. It's not about responsibility on paper in this context, it's about job performance. A captain who massively screws up and crashes a plane (we'll assume everyone got out ok) will get fired, probably along with the FO. And then he'll be at burger king making those junior FA wages you mentioned.

No. S/he should shape up or ship out.

I can understand why you think that because that is a very natural western way of looking at things, the way he thinks is that it is incomprehensible to him why we think he is doing anything special, they are funny that way. I can assure you that he is not doing it for what the stake holders may think or with any hidden agenda, to him his own success is measured by the success of the company, it is just the general view that the Japanese have towards their company it is almost like if they are fans of a sports team rather than employees.

Steve Jobs(Apple), Warren Buffett, John Mackey(whole foods), Eric Schmidt/Sergey Brin/Larry Page(Google), Richard Kinder(Kinder Morgan), Richard Fairbank (Capitol One), Bill Gates(Microsoft).

A $10 bill gets you these guys for a year with enough change left over to hit the .99 cent menu.

This is also a fundamental difference in western/eastern philosophies. The leaders whether they be military or corporate feel a huge sense of responsibility for the performance of their organizations. That's why military leaders would take their life after a battle loss due to the overwhelming shame of suffering a loss. Taking millions while the rest of your employees are taking cuts is not fathomable to them.

We lost our pensions, took 50% paycuts, while the executives who made these decisions insulated themselves with bankrupt proof golden parachutes. It's hard to tell your troops with conviction to storm a hill while you eat filet mignon from a mansion far from the battlefield.

I have no problem compensating leaders for solid performance. But blind compensation simply because you are an executive is stupid.