TOKYO -- Keyence, a top maker of automation sensors and machine vision systems, was Japan's top-paying company in the fiscal year ended March, Nikkei has found, as profitable corporations continue to amply reward employees despite a pandemic-induced economic chill.
Keyence's roughly 2,600 employees received on average 17.51 million yen ($160,000) for the year. Nikkei ranked the 355 components of the Nikkei 500 Stock Average that employ 100 or more people, based on pay data from their securities reports for fiscal 2020.
Despite suffering a decline in operating profit last fiscal year, Keyence remains one of Japan's most profitable companies, with an operating profit margin of about 50%. The company distributes a portion of its operating profit to employees through a special payout four times a year, plus a monthly bonus.
"To lift morale, we make sure employees are rewarded for their contribution to earnings," the company said.
Major trading houses also ranked high, propelled by stakes in commodities and other companies. Itochu took third at 16.27 million yen, up 4% from the previous year, after it tallied record profits.
Japan's 10 highest-paying companies in fiscal 2020
- Keyence, $160,000
- Mitsubishi Corp., $153,000
- Itochu, $148,000
- Mitsui & Co., $135,000
- Nomura Holdings, $129,000
- SoftBank Group, $128,000
- Nippon Television Holdings, $126,000
- Sumitomo Corp., $124,000
- Tokio Marine Holdings, $118,000
- Mitsui Fudosan, $116,000 ($1 = 109.63 yen)
SoftBank Group, which booked the highest net profit of any Japanese company last fiscal year, placed sixth at 14.04 million yen.
Overall, annual pay increased at 130 companies last year and decreased at 225.
The biggest jumps came in industries that benefited from more consumers staying at home. Matsui Securities notched the largest gain, at 24.4%, as the stock rally ushers in a higher volume of online transactions by retail investors. The company issued an extra bonus in addition to its usual year-end payout at the end of March.
At electronics retailer K's Holdings, average pay swelled by 10.5%, driven by increased sales of appliances. "We bolstered compensation for our workers, who supported our stores amid the pandemic," the company said.
Social networking service Mixi offered stipends of up to 80,000 yen to help employees working from home. A strong performance in its game business fueled higher bonuses, contributing to an 11.3% rise in pay.
Meanwhile, workers at leisure companies and airlines were hit hard. Annual pay at Tokyo Disney Resort operator Oriental Land plummeted 36.3% to 4.51 million yen, after the company slashed winter bonuses by 70% due to reduced operating hours and other setbacks.
All Nippon Airways parent ANA Holdings said it cut bonuses and wages to maintain employment. Its pay tumbled 23.5% last year. Japan Airlines saw a 19.2% slump, with the company trimming its summer bonus by half and winter bonus by three-quarters.
Pay at Nippon Steel fell 19.4%. The company calculates its bonus based on the performance of its steelmaking business in the year prior, which in fiscal 2019 booked a loss exceeding 300 billion yen. Yet the business is seen as recovering this fiscal year, which could buoy annual pay in fiscal 2022.
As global competition for digital talent heats up, pay looms as a more prominent issue for Japanese companies.
Average annual wages in Japan came to about $38,500 last year, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- 20% below the OECD average. Yearly pay at about 2,000 listed companies with comparable data improved under previous Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic program, but retreated nearly 2% in fiscal 2020 to 6.32 million yen.
Earnings in corporate Japan are expected to rebound significantly this fiscal year, driven mainly by exporters.
"Pay will recover little by little as the economy returns to normal, though it depends on the situation with the [coronavirus] variants," said Shingo Ide of the NLI Research Institute.
But as the pandemic drags on, some companies are prioritizing preserving jobs over boosting pay, which could lead to a split in employee compensation trends.