I don't think you are interpreting that comment in this context the way I would. It is possible for an employee of a Japanese company to have a $91k salary and,

I don't think you are interpreting that comment in this context the way I would. It is possible for an employee of a Japanese company to have a $91k salary and, also, a high internal status, resulting in non-pecuniary benefits as described. It is extraordinarily unlikely that employee is an engineer. (For additional "It's complicated!" context: I believe his bosses likely considered the offer they made him to be a plum. My ex-employer had a similar terminal outcome for distinguished engineers, where you'd be given a laboratory, perhaps an assistant or two, and total freedom. Is that a particularly compelling terminal offer? No. But it's an offer better than 99.8% of employees in the engineering track have. The mere fact that it is obviously better than what 99.8% of engineers get is a component of the offer; Japanese megacorps figure out that giving you money to purchase status is inefficient when they can simply award you status directly.)