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The story
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ “Family Income and Expenditure Survey (2025),” households consisting only of a retired couple aged 75 or older (average age 80.8, 96.0% homeownership rate) bring in ¥250,000 in monthly income against ¥280,000 in monthly spending — a shortfall of ¥27,000 every month. The finding sparked discussion on 5ch’s News Express+ board, splitting commenters between “running a deficit is expected — that’s what savings are for” and “you should keep your living costs within your income in the first place.” Posters also flagged the high food and communications costs, as well as the burden of medical expenses.
(Omitted)
[Couples 75 and Older, No Job] How Much Do Monthly Living Expenses Really Cost?
Using the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ “Family Income and Expenditure Survey (2025),” let’s look at the household finances of retired couple-only households (two-or-more-person households) aged 75 and older. The average age of surveyed households is 80.8, with a homeownership rate of 96.0%.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Running a deficit is normal, you know?
That's what savings are for
Wait wait wait
NOT running a deficit is normal, you know?
That's what arithmetic is for
Lots of eating out, plus they signed up for whatever phone plan the shop clerk pushed on them
Microtransaction games — and it's shocking how many old geezers show up at offline meetups (offkai, in-person fan gatherings)
"Transportation & communications" is a combined category covering transport costs for getting around plus communication costs for staying in touch — it's a line item used in statistics like the Family Income and Expenditure Survey.
Apparently everyone younger will see it cut way down
It's messed up that if bureaucrats gamble away the pension money we paid in on risky investments and lose, they just cut our pensions for it
Bureaucrats aren't the ones directly managing the investments, come on
Or would you rather the money just sat idle doing nothing?
"Full pension" doesn't even make sense
The government just pays out whatever it can afford
Half of the pension you receive comes from taxes, the other half from your employer, with a quarter being your own contribution
Also, the portion of the pension fund that got invested was actually in the black — they're raking it in off investors, lol
I don't get why getting old costs that much money
Probably goes toward medical costs?
Seriously, you'll need basically infinite savings
If you don't own a home, you've got rent on top of this — that's hell
Well, that's on them though
A lot of people probably don't think about this
The type who say 'once you're past 75 you can't get out much anyway, so you won't spend money'
That's steep even for an expensive area
Utilities (electricity, gas, water): ¥24,312
¥24,000 for electricity, gas, and water for two people is way too cheap
That's an insanely frugal, bare-bones lifestyle
They tried to get away with it by turning their own kids' generation into the 'Employment Ice Age' generation (the cohort that graduated into Japan's long job-market freeze)
But because of the Ice Age, that generation couldn't get married, leading to a low-birthrate, aging society — so elder welfare gets cut
There's no getting away with it, especially if you end up living a long time — then you're screwed
Actual income (pension): ¥130,000, actual spending: ¥280,000
A ¥150,000 monthly deficit!
Guess I'll be drawing down about ¥200,000 a month from term deposits and other financial assets
Let's take a peek at the finances of retired two-or-more-person households aged 75 and over.
Total savings: ¥23.62 million
The average savings in this survey is over ¥20 million to begin with, so running a deficit isn't a problem
Looking only at income versus spending gives you a ¥30,000 deficit, sure, but there's no need to cut your standard of living just to close a gap that small
No way they're handling a budget SIM on their own
Don't they have any grandkids to set it up for them?
Once you switch, you never look back
Average of like ¥500 million or something? (obvious exaggeration)
> For people in their 70s (an age bracket that includes most of the late-elderly population), the average savings for two-or-more-person households is about ¥24.16 million, with a median of about ¥11.78 million.
Even for a couple, ¥80,000 a month on food for two elderly people is a lot
Probably eating out a lot
¥80,000 divided by 30 days is about ¥2,600 a day
Split between two people, three meals each, that's about ¥1,300 per person, or roughly ¥430 a meal
Even if breakfast is just rice porridge, if lunch and dinner are bento boxes, ¥80,000 a month adds up easily
Transportation & communications: ¥26,294
??? (´･ω･`)
The transportation cost is probably taxi fares for hospital visits using a licensed care-service taxi
Sounds like they got signed up for one of the big three carriers' premium plans plus a bunch of useless add-on options
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ survey data shows this “¥27,000 monthly deficit” isn’t an unexpected shortfall, but a figure that assumes households are deliberately drawing down their savings. Average savings for these households run in the ¥20-million-plus range, and few commenters saw the deficit itself as a real problem. At the same time, many in the thread misread “transportation & communications” — actually a combined statistical category covering both travel and communication costs — leading to surprise at the idea of spending over ¥20,000 on communications alone. It’s also easy to overlook that the gap between the average and median savings figures is large, meaning the average makes the typical situation look better than it really is — focusing only on the “¥20 million average savings” risks misreading the real circumstances of many elderly households.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Retired Couples 75+ See Real Income of ¥250,000 Against Real Spending of ¥280,000… A ¥27,000 Monthly Deficit.”
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