Toyota President Paid Least Among Japan's Biggest Carmakers

The combined compensation of the heads of Japan’s three largest carmakers was less than that of Ford Motor Co.’s Alan Mulally, the world’s top-paid auto chief, reported Bloomberg.

Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., wasn’t named in a company filing to Japan’s finance ministry today, indicating his compensation last fiscal year was less than 100 million yen ($1.1 million). Nissan Motor Co.’s Carlos Ghosn earned 891 million yen and Honda Motor Co.’s Takanobu Ito was paid 115 million yen, the companies have said.

Toyoda and Ito are dwarfed by their global peers, who on average earn about $12 million, according to Towers Watson & Co., a U.S. benefits consultant. Mulally led the pack with $17.9 million in 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Because of globalization, competition is intensifying, and there is a greater importance placed on strong and decisive management,” said Katsuyuki Kubo, an associate professor of economics at Waseda University in Tokyo who specializes in compensation and corporate governance. “Without the pay incentive, Japan could lose out on competitiveness.”

Toyota’s top executives, including Toyoda, took pay cuts and gave up bonuses as the carmaker recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide to fix defects linked to unintended acceleration. Toyoda worried he would have to step down as president ahead of U.S. Congressional hearings on the recalls in February, he said yesterday.

“I was feeling enormous pressure and was full of anxiety as I went in to bring up the rear of this losing battle,” he told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in Toyota City, where it is based.

Toyota’s top 38 executives received an average of 53.1 million yen each in salary and stock options for the year ended in March, the company said yesterday. That’s a 30 percent decline from the previous year.