Toyota Motor may cut directors' pay in FY09

[FarCenter]

The Yomiuri Shimbun - http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/20081114TDY08309.htm

Toyota Motor Corp. will consider cutting the pay of its directors in fiscal 2009, it was learned Wednesday.

The aim of the nation's top automaker is to clarify the executives' management responsibility after the company announced last week that it expected a 73.6 percent dive in group operating profit for fiscal 2008, due to sluggish new car sales resulting from the global economic downturn.

Toyota also expects reducing the remuneration of its directors to set an example as the company prepares to embark on thorough cost-cutting.

Observers said the decision by Toyota, one of the domestic economy's leading companies, to reduce directors' salaries will greatly affect the business decisions of other manufacturers.

The company is expected to pay 3.92 billion yen in total to the executives as salaries and bonuses in fiscal 2008, up 17 percent from the previous year.

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3.92 billion yen is a little over $40 million at current exchange rates. Japanese executives generally make a lot less than their American counterparts. Plus they are more competent. We should outsource more management jobs.