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Published 8/18 (Tue) 7:00 AM
withnews by The Asahi Shimbun
Every time I meet up with friends, investing comes up. Scroll through social media and you’ll see posts like “I’m putting away tens of thousands of yen a month.” Maybe I’m missing out by not doing it too — but then again, just getting through each month isn’t exactly easy either.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Sounds like the type who'd say 'I won't get my pension anyway so why bother paying into it'
If you really think Japan's going under, all the more reason to get your capital flight going
Unlike iDeCo, you can withdraw from this anytime
It only caps out at 18 million yen. NISA's a system for poor people, honestly — the allowance is nothing much. Most of my holdings are in a regular taxable account anyway
18 million yen is way too small for the truly wealthy. It's really just an allowance sized for ordinary people redirecting a chunk of the tens of thousands of yen a month they used to save for retirement. And if you can't even manage a few tens of thousands a month in retirement savings to begin with, you should be on welfare
Probably because 18 million yen is chump change to the seriously rich? NISA's a tax-saving investment scheme for ordinary people
Or it's such small change to them they just don't bother mentioning it — probably doing it as a matter of course
Horiemon (entrepreneur Takafumi Horie) said the same — a good system, but not one he personally needs
Can that guy even hold assets under his own name? Seems like they'd get seized instantly
Can you actually carry forward a capital-loss deduction for that many years?
Well, conservatively speaking, it's probably grown at least 1.5x by now
I'm up more than 10x that, but I always tell people around me I'm barely scraping by. That's pretty much how it goes — nobody admits in real life that they do NISA or invest
You can live on pension alone, though. Most people are on the employee pension (kosei nenkin). Can't speak for the future, though
Have you never even looked at your pension statement?
It can be withdrawn, but the moment the person dies it should convert to the heir's designated account or a regular taxable account — the NISA tax-free allowance itself can't be inherited
So if the heir withdraws it, it's no longer tax-free and they get hit hard with taxes instead?
Hey, withdraw it without authorization and you're no longer considered an heir — that meets the disqualification requirements for inheritance, so it all goes straight to the national treasury
If you get cancer, you sell off your stocks bit by bit and cash them out in advance — same with bank deposits. Because once you're dead, inheritance tax takes a massive cut. Makes you wonder how Mr. Kiriya (the famous shareholder-perks investor) handles this…
The mass media ('masugomi,' i.e. media garbage) are idiots lol
There used to be a term 'savings-poor' too — someone who prioritizes saving above everything, so their food and clothes end up shabby. Basically someone who gives up a rich, full life just to save
A lot of old folks still think stocks equal gambling
I mean, what good is an 18-million-yen allowance to old geezers at this point lol
Nissan at 1,000 yen, lol. Back then Nissan was THE go-to high-dividend stock
Background and Key Points
The new NISA (Nippon Individual Savings Account) is Japan’s tax-exempt investing scheme, modeled on Britain’s ISA and first launched in 2014, then overhauled in January 2024 into a permanent program with a lifetime investment cap of 18 million yen (about $120,000) — up to 12 million yen of which can go into the “growth” tier, with combined annual limits of 3.6 million yen. It was the centerpiece of the Kishida government’s push to move household savings into investment, in a country where cash and bank deposits still dominate household assets far more than in the US or UK. iDeCo, mentioned in the thread, is a separate individual pension scheme locked until age 60, unlike NISA’s anytime withdrawals.
The thread’s real fault line wasn’t whether to invest, but whether NISA counts as a program “for the rich” or “for ordinary people.” Posters pointed out that 18 million yen is trivial to genuinely wealthy households, making NISA a middle-class tax break rather than an elite shelter — which cuts against the framing implied by the term “NISA-poor” itself.
What outsiders are likely to miss is that “NISA-poor” (NISA貧乏) doesn’t mean destitute — it describes people who funnel so much monthly cash into hitting the contribution cap that everyday spending gets squeezed, echoing an older term, “savings-poor” (貯金貧乏). Also unmentioned but relevant: NISA’s tax-free status doesn’t transfer to heirs — assets convert to a taxable account on the holder’s death, which is why several posters discussed selling off holdings before dying to dodge Japan’s steep inheritance tax.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Why Does ‘NISA-Poor’ Happen? Started It for ‘Future Peace of Mind,’ But… Rethinking Our Relationship with Investing.”
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