Pop quiz: Which executive took home the biggest pay packet in Japan last year?
Perhaps Akio Toyoda of Toyota Motor, or his successor, Koji Sato, who oversaw a doubling of the share price in the last fiscal year at what was already Japan’s largest company? Maybe Tokyo Electron’s Toshiki Kawai, with the chip equipment maker’s shares surging nearly 14 times since he took over less than a decade ago?
Step forward instead Joseph DePinto, the head of U.S. operations for 7-Eleven convenience store owner Seven & I Holdings. He enjoyed some ¥7.7 billion ($49 million) in compensation for the last fiscal year, one during which Seven & I’s shares rose a mere 4%. Performance-related incentives — the U.S. now makes up the majority of the firm’s revenue and profits, thanks to acquisitions that DePinto helped oversee — pushed his reward to 22 times that paid to his boss, Chief Executive Officer Ryuichi Isaka.