However, he was one of the directors who maintained a contract with Toho to the end, even in face of Toho's drastic cut-down in production (Toho decided to reduce the number of its production to only several films a year, the level of an independent production company, and that was a complete volte-face deemed as a practical halt in production), and for a while, he was said to be the director with the highest guarantee fee in Japan.
だが70年代に東宝が一挙に製作を縮小した際（自社製作を独立プロ並みの年間数本に減らすという事実上の製作中止に等しい大鉈であった）にも最後まで契約が続いた監督の一人でもあり、日本で最もギャラの高い監督と言われた時期もあった。