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The story
A 2025 survey by the Japan Financial Literacy and Education Corporation (J-FLEC) found that among households of two or more people, average financial assets (savings, insurance, stocks, mutual funds, etc. combined) came to ¥14.86M for those in their 40s and ¥19.08M for those in their 50s. The median, however, was only ¥5M for the 40s and ¥7M for the 50s — a huge gap from the average. On 5ch, these numbers sparked back-and-forth over the view that “the average is just being dragged up by a handful of high-asset households,” posts revealing people’s actual savings, and doubts about the reliability of the survey itself.
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How much do two-or-more-person households in their 40s and 50s actually have saved?
According to the Japan Financial Literacy and Education Corporation’s (J-FLEC) 2025 “Public Opinion Survey on Household Financial Behavior,” when you line up financial assets by the age of the household head for households of two or more people, those in their 40s averaged ¥14.86M and those in their 50s averaged ¥19.08M. “Financial assets” here means a household’s overall savings — bank deposits plus insurance, mutual funds, stocks, and the like. Households in their 30s, one bracket down, averaged ¥10.96M, so it’s clear that savings build up step by step as people move from their 30s into their 40s and 50s.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Can't — I'm a freeter (part-time/temp worker).
Guess you can't live like a human being without that?
That's assuming average income and spending, a married couple, and owning a home.
For reference, I'm 48, married with one kid, and I've got ¥2M saved.
If you've got kids and a mortgage, being in the negative is pretty normal too.
Saving over ¥10M in cash is impressive.
Sorry, but with that little, do you even need Money Forward?
I use it because besides cash I've also got stocks, mutual funds, crypto, and points.
Without Money Forward I couldn't keep track of my assets.
Ah sorry, cash, right.
But isn't ¥1.5M kind of low?
I've got around ¥250M in stocks and funds, but I still keep ¥10M in cash just in case.
Wow, you're really loaded.
I've got income from work, and if push comes to shove I can just cash out some funds, so I figure I'll manage.
Threads are full of this stuff now, it's honestly hilarious.
Way too exaggerated, come on.
it's just numbers to entertain you guys.
For 2024, two-or-more-person households, both surveys give a median:
MIC survey: median ¥10.99M
J-FLEC survey: median ¥3.5M
Writing an article that just says "savings" without noting that gap is basically spreading misinformation.
"Thin on evidence," really?
The numbers are right there.
Obviously, unless you're literally stashing cash under the mattress, the government has a record of everyone's financial assets.
Re: #80
This is an online survey that keeps churning out numbers wildly different from the MIC Family Income and Expenditure Survey, which is considered relatively accurate.
Don't worry —
I basically assume anything from 5ch is fake news anyway lol
What's strange is that it wasn't just wealthy asset-holders who backed it — even the asset-poor middle/lower class did too.
Actually, asset-holders like me were against it.
Of course, since I knew exactly what would happen once the yen got debased, I put everything into stocks.
I parked ¥5M in a foreign-currency deposit back when the yen was strong,
and I've been converting it back to yen little by little.
Wear similar-looking stuff from Uniqlo.
Don't wear watches or accessories in public.
Don't carry brand-name goods.
Never mention that you have assets.
That's the basics of living a peaceful life.
I'm not really into luxury cars or brand-name stuff anyway, so I just live like normal.
Is a cheap automatic Omega not okay?
Been feeling the same lately, so I'm selling off the valuables I have at home.
Planning to dump it all into 10-year variable-rate government bonds.
I'm cheap by nature, so even brand-name stuff I buy ends up locked in a safe
turning into a glorified ornament.
Whoever picks it up secondhand from me basically gets it like new — lucky them lol
80% in stocks, total assets ¥200M.
My kid is 2, so life's really just getting started.
Can't buy a house yet since I'm subject to nationwide relocations for work.
Cute — is that your grandchild?
Most people are scraping by.
Then again, isn't the median way too low?
Doesn't that worry anyone?
The Employment Ice Age generation's poor (those who graduated into Japan's brutal 1990s–2000s hiring freeze) are all in for a rough time.
They'll literally be working until their bodies give out.
Though I wonder if anyone will even hire them past 65.
In the end, working is better for your health and keeps your mind sharp.
Once nobody will hire them, they'll basically go feral with nothing left to lose.
Prison is the safety net.
A society in decline and decay is the best show there is.
I just want a seat in the audience for it.
It's a work-till-you-die system though lol
Went to Mokkosu (a ramen chain) for the first time in ages — still delicious.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The underlying data here comes from a 2025 public opinion survey by the Japan Financial Literacy and Education Corporation (J-FLEC), which found average savings of ¥14.86M with a median of ¥5M for households in their 40s, and an average of ¥19.08M with a median of ¥7M for those in their 50s. Such a wide gap between average and median is a classic sign that a small number of high-asset households are pulling the average upward — looking only at the “average” makes things look more comfortable than they really are. Commenters on the thread also questioned the survey methodology itself, pointing out that the figures diverge sharply from other statistics such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ Family Income and Expenditure Survey. Even when both are labeled “savings,” definitions and sample populations differ by surveying body, so a straightforward comparison isn’t valid. One thing readers can easily misread is that these figures are averages and medians for “households of two or more people” — they don’t reflect the reality of single-person households, or households carrying a mortgage or education costs.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “Average savings for households in their 40s and 50s are ¥14.86M and ¥19.08M — but the median is a far lower ¥5M and ¥7M.”
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