Japanese Housewives Secret Savings Fall to 3-Year Low
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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.