Japanese Housewives Secret Savings Fall to 3-Year Low
Japanese Housewives Secret Savings Fall to 3-Year Low
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
A shopper browses in the produce section of a supermarket in Tokyo. Japanese housewives’ “secret savings” fell 18 percent to the lowest in three years in 2010 as slumping family incomes and rising prices for food and energy forced them to tap reserves, a survey shows.
A shopper browses in the produce section of a supermarket in Tokyo. Japanese housewives’ “secret savings” fell 18 percent to the lowest in three years in 2010 as slumping family incomes and rising prices for food and energy forced them to tap reserves, a survey shows. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Japanese housewives’ “secret savings” fell 18 percent to the lowest in three years in 2010 as slumping family incomes and rising prices for food and energy forced them to tap reserves, a survey shows.
The value of so-called hesokuri, the cash and investments that housewives stash without telling their husbands, fell to an average 3.1 million yen ($37,700) in 2010 from 3.7 million yen a year earlier, the lowest since 2007, according to a Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. report published today. Women traditionally handle family finances in Japan, collecting their husbands’ paychecks and making investment decisions.
Higher energy bills sparked by the country’s hottest summer on record and an 18 percent jump in vegetable prices prompted housewives to tap savings and cut pocket money doled to husbands from their bonuses. The use of savings to manage everyday expenses reversed last year’s trend of using hesokuri funds for one-time purchases such as travel or dining out, the report said.
“Because they’re charged with household finances, housewives can tell where Japan’s economy is going,” Minoru Sugiyama, an official at Sompo Japan who helped lead the survey, said in an interview. “Japanese people will be more defensive this year after cutting expenses and facing falling income. Family finances and Japan’s economy seem to be getting worse.”
Income Squeeze
Household confidence has slumped for six straight months as the economic recovery loses steam. Japan’s gross domestic product contracted at an annual 0.8 percent pace last quarter after consumer stimulus programs ended, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
While some food prices rose last year, the country has struggled for more than a decade with deflation that has squeezed corporate earnings and workers’ pay, weakened consumption and made debts harder to pay off. Wages dropped at an average 1 percent pace in the past decade, and monthly pay slid 0.2 percent in November, Labor Ministry data show.
Housewives gave their husbands a smaller share of this winter’s bonuses to spend, today’s report showed, with the allocation falling 5.5 percent from a year earlier to 69,000 yen, the lowest since 2003.
Among the 500 respondents to the survey, 141 said the increase in vegetable prices had the biggest impact on their family budgets last year. The rise in energy bills due to torrid summer was the second and higher tobacco taxes ranked third.
Hot Weather
The average price of vegetables jumped last year in part because of hot weather, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Onions rose 42 percent to 125 yen a kilogram, potatoes climbed 37 percent and tomatoes increased 21 percent.
Japan in 2010 had the hottest summer since records started in 1898, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Ten Japanese power companies sold 84.9 billion kilowatt hours in August, up 9.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan.
About 37 percent of housewives said declining cash flow forced them to use the secret savings to cover living expenses, while 21 percent used it to pay for one-time luxury spending -- almost the exact inverse of a year earlier, the survey said.
The housewives plan to save money by using cheap ingredients. Some 233 respondents said they will use more bean sprouts to cook meals, while 80 housewives will consider tofu for breakfast and dinner, compared with 72 last year and 40 a year earlier. Five said they plan to use traditional seasonings on plain rice to stretch budgets.
More people said total financial assets, excluding hesokuri savings, dropped last year than people who said those assets rose, and the average decline per family was 1.2 million yen, the research said.
Sompo Japan DIY Life Insurance Co., a venture between Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. and Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Co., targeted 57,000 Japanese housewives in their 20s through 50s from Dec. 10 to Dec. 14. Of those, 8,300 responded to the survey, of which 500 answers were used. The average age of participants was 39.7.
To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page