Japanese financial egalitarianism is also, to a certain degree, a statistical mirage. At higher internal statuses inside the company, it will simply anticipate your desires and provide for them, rather than you ever needing to sully yourself with money. The IRS takes a rather dim view of this and has since the reforms in, IIRC, the 1970s, which treat perks as taxable income. The National Tax Agency theoretically disapproves of them but the actual practice in Japan is that companies get away with things that would get your entire accounting division jailed in the US.

For example, a Japanese CEO might have a salary of 4x that of his youngest salaryman. However, he also drives a $200k car. It is not "his" car, it is the company's car, but aside from the name on the title you could be excused for not knowing that. He's also homeless, if you discount the $10 million house which happens to be owned by the company's real estate arm which he happens to live in.

After he's CEO emeritus, he'll probably be provided with a board seat, a job at an affiliated company, or what have you, and the perks will continue, as befits someone of his stature.

This is true at all levels of the company, too. My salary was $30k, but there is some tangible value in having a pocket full of business cards which practically read "Attention, person who has just been handed this card: give the bearer whatever he wants. We're good for it. If you don't, we will remember." That status is very much not the same as the one you get if you combine two part-time jobs into the same level of income.