Japan has always interested me in this respect, since they are an industrialized, modern, economy that is thoroughly capitalist, but the range in pay between those at the bottom and those at the top is much more compressed than it is in the US (of course, the same could be said about nearly any other country compared to the US). It has everything to do with their cultural norms, and not that they have legislated executive pay caps.
A friend of mine who worked in Japan for several years explained the dynamic to me this way:
In Japan, it doesn't matter if I have such a unique intersection of skills that I would be one of 4 people in the world best suited for a particular position, they look at you and say "You will make $80,000 USD a year, because that is what 32 year old engineers in Japan make."So while they compete in a capitalist economy, they have social norms that essentially over-ride the supply and demand in the labor market.
Do they risk Japanese moving to the US to be paid more? Certainly, and it probably happens, but it also requires individuals to see through the social norms and desire something different or better.
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