Nissan paid CEO Ghosn 5.3 million pounds last year

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co , Japan's second-biggest automaker, said on Tuesday it paid Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn 1.035 billion yen (£5.3 million) last business year, up 4 percent from the previous year.

Ghosn, one of the highest-paid CEOs in Japan, received 995 million yen in compensation in the year ended March 2014.

Ghosn is also CEO of Nissan's alliance partner, Renault SA (RENA.PA), which paid him 7.2 million euros (£5.2 million) in 2014. He is also chairman of the board at their Russian partner, AvtoVAZ (AVAZ.MM).

Ghosn's pay, though high for Japanese standards, was dwarfed by the record-shattering compensation for his Softbank Corp (9984.T) counterpart, Nikesh Arora. The former Google Inc (GOOGL.O) executive made 16.56 billion yen in roughly half a year, including an undisclosed one-off signing bonus for joining the Japanese telecoms company in September.

Among the 2,451 listed Japanese companies that had submitted their annual securities reports as of Monday, just 77 executives at 32 firms received more than 100 million yen in compensation, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.

Ghosn, 61, is the top individual shareholder in Nissan, with 3.122 million shares, worth about $30 million at the current share price.

Nissan reported an 18 percent jump in operating profit in the year ended March 31, and forecast a 15 percent rise for this year.

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Chris Gallagher)