Fujitsu execs lose pay over exchange failure

TOKYO -- Top managers at Fujitsu Ltd. will see their pay cut as punishment for a major computer failure at the Tokyo Stock Exchange that delayed trading on Nov. 1.

Fujitsu was blamed by the exchange for problems that delayed the start of trading for about four and a half hours that day.

The pay of President Hiroaki Kurokawa will be cut in half for six months while the salary of two vice presidents, Michiyoshi Mazuka and Koichi Hironishi, will be cut by a quarter for the same period, the company said.

The computer glitch was traced back to the incorrect patching of a file in mid-October during an upgrade to the trading system. A bug was found in an existing program, but Tokyo-based Fujitsu provided incorrect instructions on how to patch it, according to the exchange.