A friend of mine who worked at a local subsidiary in China told me this.
He said that he had worked in Shanghai for 15 years, and that at first the Chinese staff were paid less than him, but their salaries gradually rose. In the end, he was getting more from his staff than he was. He laughed at the fact that non-ranking staff members were paid more than the section managers.

The president of one company said that his foreign directors were paid more than he was. He also said that he was not that high-ranking among all the directors. Executive remuneration must be disclosed if it exceeds 100 million yen. The president doesn’t want to do that.
What we can see from the above examples is the fact that Japanese companies do not avoid raising wages.
We pay foreigners at the same level as foreign companies. Because they are Japanese, there is pressure not to proactively raise their wages. Why do Japanese people feel that they don’t need to be paid high salaries even if they are company executives? That is the crux of this problem.
In short, Japanese people are under less pressure to raise their salary levels.

For Japanese people, a decent salary is enough. The company president himself implicitly believes that Japanese people’s salaries do not have to be high. It is troublesome for others to criticize you for receiving too much salary. This mentality outweighs the sentiment that more pay is better.
The current wage hike is also an extension of this mentality. Our company is firmly raising wages as a social responsibility. This also means that they fear criticism for their refusal to raise wages. Since other companies raise wages, we have no choice but to do so as well. Silent peer pressure responds.
This logic is likely to disappear once the mood in society that “raising wages is a good thing” recedes. As long as the economic situation is still good and there is room for wage increases, it can be seen that this situation will continue.
Now, what do foreigners have that Japanese people don’t?

This is due to the culture of labor mobility, where if a worker is dissatisfied, they go and work for another company. The Chinese staff say they have no intention of working at the Japanese subsidiary where they are employed for the rest of their lives.
They are only working there now because it’s advantageous to be there for their career development. The same applies to foreign directors. If you are dissatisfied with executive compensation, go to another company.

Many Japanese people lack such elements. Even if I’m dissatisfied, I still work at my current job because I don’t think I can make money elsewhere. Naturally, the results of work do not improve. They come to work out of inertia, fulfill their minimal role, and then go home.
I think it would be a good idea for many Japanese companies to raise or lower salaries based on performance, and in some cases lay people off.
If someone is dissatisfied with the lack of salary increases, they are advised to work for another company. If the number of such companies increases and job changes spread, the pressure on Japanese people to raise wages will increase as a result.