Is the average Japanese household's savings ¥19.4M, or a median of ¥7.2M? Why the Household Survey says ¥20.6M, tables by age and income, and how much of take-home pay gets saved (2025 surveys)

"Average savings" in Japan depends on who surveyed and what counts as savings. J-FLEC's 2025 survey puts financial assets of two-or-more-person households at a mean of ¥19.4M and a median of ¥7.2M, with 15.7% of households holding none. The Statistics Bureau's Household Survey (savings and debt) gives a mean of ¥20.59M and a median of ¥12.64M among households that have savings.

By age of the household head: J-FLEC 2025 (two-or-more-person households, 5,000)

The mean and median columns count households with no financial assets as ¥0; only the last column is limited to the 4,216 households that hold some. Excluding those without, the overall mean is ¥23.09M and the median ¥10.5M.

By household income: J-FLEC 2025

The median rises with income: ¥1M under ¥3M of income, ¥30M at ¥12M or more. Higher-income households also tend to be older, so age differences are mixed in.

Household Survey (savings and debt) 2025: savings beside debt

The Survey reports that below age 50 debt (mostly mortgages) exceeds savings, and from 50 savings exceed debt. Overall the mean savings are ¥20.59M against a mean annual income of ¥6.81M, about 302.3% of annual income. The mean breaks down into ¥7.1M in current deposits, ¥5.11M in time deposits, ¥4.4M in securities, ¥3.69M in life insurance and similar, and ¥0.29M outside financial institutions.

How much of take-home pay is saved: the two surveys do not measure the same thing

• J-FLEC (4,216 households with financial assets): 38.4% set part of their take-home pay aside into financial assets over the past year and 61.6% set none aside. Those who did averaged 35% of take-home pay.
• Household Survey (two-or-more-person worker households, monthly average): disposable income ¥532,408 minus consumption ¥346,297 leaves a surplus of ¥186,111 (a 35.0% surplus rate), of which net additions to deposits are ¥177,061.

Both look like roughly 35%, but the populations (households with financial assets versus worker households), the periods and the way of counting (an average over only those who set money aside versus an average surplus over all) differ, so they cannot be compared. J-FLEC's figure is self-reported in an internet panel survey.

Younger households are more likely to have set money aside: 59% in their 20s and 24% in their 70s.

What people save for

In J-FLEC's survey, the purposes of holding financial assets (up to three answers, all households) were retirement living costs at 56.1%, illness or emergencies at 41.1%, travel and leisure at 17% and children's education at 16.7%.

Reading these numbers

• J-FLEC surveyed 5,000 households of two or more people with a head aged 20–79, by internet panel, from 20 June to 2 July 2025. Single-person households have their own survey (mean ¥9.19M).
• In 2024 the mean was ¥13.74M and the median ¥3.5M, so the 2025 median is about double. That is read from a chart in the report; whether it reflects a real change or a different mix of respondents cannot be told from the survey documents. Compare with last year cautiously.
• On 21 January 2026 J-FLEC corrected the 2025 securities figure from ¥7.55M to ¥7.27M. The total of ¥19.4M and the median are unchanged.
• The Household Survey's mean includes households with zero savings. Its "median of households with savings" excludes them; the median including zeros is ¥11.67M (reference value).
• Being below or above the average or median does not mean you have too little or enough. It depends on living costs, housing, mortgages and expected pensions.

For where to put savings, see the NISA simulator, and for points you earn along the way when points expire.

This is general information from official surveys (checked on 11 October 2026), not tax, legal, or financial advice.