Iconic Sony executive Kaz Hirai is still settling in with his new CEO chair, but he’ll hopefully still feel comfortable with a slightly smaller wallet full of cash. In a typical corporate shuffle, Hirai will be giving up his titles as representative director and chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, but still remains in charge of the Sony umbrella as president and CEO.

Essentially, this means that Hirai will now be a part-time member of the Sony Corporation’s board of directors.

Sony’s SCE board now has a weird pecking order, as it’s now being headed by Andrew House, the head of the PlayStation division, who is outranked by Hirai.

As the Wall Street Journal notes, the loss of job titles also comes saddled with a pay cut for Kaz Hirai. Although it’s still quite a bit of yen for an executive salary, it’s almost a fourth less than what he made last year, and one-fourth of what previous CEO Howard Stringer was raking in:

On Wednesday, after the company held its annual shareholders’ meeting, Sony Corp. SNE -0.29% disclosed the pay for three of its corporate executives including Mr. Hirai. In the past fiscal year ended March, Mr. Hirai received a relatively modest ¥115.6 million ($1.45 million) in salary, stock options, and benefits, a 24% cut from his pay in the same period a year earlier — and only a quarter of the compensation received by the man he replaced. He was the lowest paid of the three executives whose pay was disclosed in the regulatory filing.

Sony has currently facing dire financial problems with the company’s stock at an all-time low after being “in the red” for the last four years. Some of that can be chalked up to the poor effort of the PlayStation brand since 2006, but most of it is also due to the company’s failing in the electronics and HDTV market.

As a result, Sony is actively pursuing cost-cutting measures, including the sale of the New York headquarters. If things don’t turn around for the electronics giant, expect more changes at the top.

Source: Wall Street Journal