Japan household assets rise to record ¥3,072 tril at end of 2020

Assets held in cash, deposits and stocks increased 2.4 percent to 1,934.7 trillion yen

how can they know how much cash people have at home? or is that not they mean by "cash"?

was also helped by 100,000 yen government handouts to all citizens as part of an economic package aimed at cushioning the fallout from the virus crisis.

Some economists had said the blanket cash handout would spur spending only by those in need of financial aid for their living, and those not in such a situation would sock the cash away.

Kyodo has to keep reminding its "readers" of this 2 year ago toss of a few coins to the populace.

Might the data be skewed by the massive financial stimulus packages buoying corporate bottom lines and the stock market.

No, Kyodo says it was that 100,000 2 years ago why the Japanese populace is secure with a nice cushion of savings. How rich.

These figures are from the cabinet office and need to taken with a healthy does of scepticism. Japans government figures have a tendency to be false, misleading at best.

Dagon, you forget they also just late last year gave another Y100,000 to children 18 and under, so they did give two handouts, just not to everyone.

I don't know about the rest of you, but most people I know are not rolling in the dough as this article states. It must be a Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya phenomena versus the rest of the country.

It's 2022. It took them a year to calculate this?

￥100,000 is a drop in the bucket. People in Japan have always hoarded cash when there is uncertainty in the economy.

Which means, nothing has changed in the past two decades or so, in reality, as the uncertainty in the economy has been the norm for at least that long.

@MarkX By Nagoya you mean Toyota and Mitsubishi staff?

Coz no one is rolling in cash here as far as I know !

I don't know about the rest of you, but most people I know are not rolling in the dough as this article states. It must be a Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya phenomena versus the rest of the country.

It's old people who worked through the bubble period, especially those who own property/land in the major cities.

These statistics would paint an entirely different picture if broken down by age groups. Which is probably why they aren't. Most younger people are relatively poor and getting poorer as the 1% get richer through their assets.

It's old people who worked through the bubble period, especially those who own property/land in the major cities.

Japan got caught in the bubble serving rentier interests; ie those with significant capital assets.

The weakening of the yen, stimulus to Japan Inc. , buoying of the financial markets even the continuing payments to inns and eateries all flow from that.

And so the vicious cycle continues. The elderly hoard on to these assets without spending them, and when they die the high estate tax means their descendants are left with dwindling assets. Would have been better for these people to spend and help money trickle down to the commoners. No doubt jgov would be happy as when the oldies die in the next few decades, the massive tax income can help trim down the world's largest indebted country.

In the near future, the J-gov will receive a large inheritance tax from the elderly generation and reduce its huge debt to some extent. Now Japanese people don't spend money due to anxiety about future and save it too much. Long life span of Japanese may be origin of some problems.

Assets held in cash, deposits and stocks increased 2.4 percent to 1,934.7 trillion yen, while nonfinancial assets including land and fixed assets decreased 0.5 percent to 1,138.1 trillion yen, according to data from the Cabinet Office.

The Nikkei is booming, so the few (older) people with lots of stocks made that 2.4 percent. The focus on the much smaller cash handouts is very misleading, and seems intended to convince the reader they are a waste of time as a stimulus. We got ours and spent it all because my income collapsed. I'm sure most real life people not on Twitter spent most of theirs too.

In the big picture, that 2.4% is the rich getting richer through their assets, that is all.

How do people get rich off their assets with a near zero interest rate?

Last time this news came up we were given the nation’s average household savings, which was easier to picture than some pie-in-the-sky thousand trillions.

Would have been better for these people to spend and help money trickle down to the commoners.

Well that’s interesting because places like Sweden, New Zealand and many others abolished their inheritance taxes.

In Sweden there was an understanding that the inheritance taxes created quite negative incentives. And people with lots of money can afford to spend lots of money devising ways to avoid paying such high tax rates, so revenues were low.

I believe Japan’s revenues from gift and inheritance taxes are relatively low too - maybe 2 trillion a year out of 65 iirc.

Rather than incentivizing wealthy people to figure out ways of avoiding inheritance tax (real estate schemes seem common), I have little doubt it would benefit Japan to abolish the taxes here too and boost incentives for productive investment. The economic benefits of better incentives could easily boost other tax revenues by 2 trillion and more.

But, I don’t expect that to happen because many people prefer to have taxes than seem “good” rather than by the actual outcomes. The wisdom of the Swedes and others ought be followed though.

How do people get rich off their assets with a near zero interest rate?

See global residential house prices and stock markets.

Been great for the wealthy, all the central planners actions have.

This is so misleading but it's the only data available to the government, Japanese in general keep large amounts of cash out of the system due to MISTRUST in banks and the fact that some banks contact and chase people with savings trying to sell them stocks and other investments.

Most young people have debts; mortgage and maybe a car loan.

If those young aged middle age haven't got a mortgage then they are probably renting and paying an elderly persons pension.

Down payment when the defaults start, compare that to a government debt to 1.4 quadrillion yen and have a think…