This airline CEO cut his own salary to $90,000 and rode the bus to work during a crisis

Corporate leaders are often associated with executive perks like private offices, luxury cars, and multimillion-dollar salaries. But during the global financial crisis in 2009, Japan Airlines (JAL) took a different approach under then-president and CEO Haruka Nishimatsu.

As the company faced mounting financial losses and implemented company-wide salary cuts, Nishimatsu reduced his own annual pay to about $90,000, commuted to the office using public transport, ate lunch at the employee cafeteria, and even removed the walls surrounding his office so staff members could approach him freely. His actions were documented in a CBS News interview at the time and have since become a widely cited example of servant leadership in corporate adversity.

The global recession had sharply reduced air travel demand, forcing airlines worldwide to cut costs and rethink operations. JAL, one of the most successful airlines at the time, incurred billions of yen in losses and was preparing for extensive restructuring. As the company implemented salary cuts affecting employees across the organisation, Nishimatsu decided leadership should share the burden with ordinary employees rather than remain insulated from it.

CBS reported that the then-CEO’s annual salary fell to as little as $90,000 during this period, far below the compensation packages typically associated with airline executives. Rather than framing the reduction as a sacrifice, Nishimatsu said leaders needed to experience the same economic reality as their employees, extending that philosophy to commuting on Tokyo’s public bus network instead of a chauffeured car, buying affordable suits instead of luxury brands, and regularly eating with employees in the staff cafeteria.

One of the most symbolic changes he made was removing the walls around his office, believing the open layout let employees from across the company walk in comfortably and raise concerns without layers of management in the way. Speaking to CBS News, Nishimatsu explained that when management is distant, “people just wait for orders” — he wanted employees to think freely and feel comfortable raising issues directly.