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Jun 6, 2016

News: Japan’s Richest Prefectures by Household Savings

Japanese media platform introduces the prefecture in Japan whose residents have saved the most money.


News: Japan’s Richest Prefectures by Household Savings photo


貯蓄 (chochiku) - savings


Do you manage to save money in Japan? Are you even trying to save money in Japan? There are any number of ideas and approaches when it comes to the collation of currency. It’s probably fair to say that for a number of Japan’s expats, saving money isn’t really an option. Since the days of earning a fortune by giving someone a quick conversation lesson have be consigned to an 80’s heyday (that shows no sign of returning), certain English-teaching positions aren’t doing much to feed bank accounts or made a dent in student loans.  


For some then, what follows is going to make for disturbing reading. The Japanese, from our perspective, look to be pretty good at saving money. According to stats compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (総務省 / soumushou) in 2014, average total savings for households across Japan were at 14,520,000 yen. That’s US$135,635 or £94,332.  


If fact, the people over at livedoor NEWS have even postulated that residents of some prefectures might be better at saving money than others. In one of their pieces they’ve ranked the best five prefecture for saving money, and the worst.


The Best 5 Prefectures at Saving Money


1Nara / 奈良県17,816,000 yen
2Tokyo / 東京都17,729,000 yen
3Fukui / 福井県17,662,000 yen
4Chiba / 千葉県17,583,000 yen
5Kanagawa / 神奈川県17,003,000 yen


Tokyo as top would have been an easy guess, still, the nation’s capital and some of the surrounding prefectures do make up the bulk of the top 5.


The Worst 5 Prefectures at Saving Money



47Okinawa / 沖縄県5,318,000 yen
46Kagoshima / 鹿児島県8,217,000 yen
45Aomori / 青森県8,464,000 yen
44Nagasaki / 長崎県9,271,000 yen
43Miyagi / 宮城県9,835,000 yen


With there being such a large difference in savings between Nara and Okinawa, the people at livedoor speculate that maybe some prefectures have a culture of saving money, and others a culture of using it.


The savings of the above cover all households; those with members still at work, and those who maybe don’t.


Below are the rankings covering only those households that still have members in employment.


Workers Best 5


1Fukui / 福井県15,087,000 yen
2Toyama / 富山県13,818,000 yen
3Tokyo / 東京都13,733,000 yen
4Chiba / 千葉県13,513,000 yen
5Aichi / 愛知県13,411,000 yen


We can see from this list, Nara is nowhere to be seen. In fact, it is 6th.


Workers Worst 5



47Okinawa / 沖縄県3,398,000 yen
46Kagoshima / 鹿児島県5,759,000 yen
45Aomori / 青森県5,929,000 yen
44Nagasaki / 長崎県6,754,000 yen
43Ōita / 大分県7,294,000 yen


Of course, all of these results are not just about people’s motivation (or lack thereof) to save money. Land prices, population breakdowns, salaries and other factors need to be considered.  


So, dare we ask? How do these savings figures compare to your own? To be honest, they brought us out into a bit of a cold sweat!

For some tips on saving money in Japan, check out this earlier post on City-Cost ...

Easy Ways To Save Money In Japan … Or Lose it!



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Source

Livedoor NEWS

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Image (cropped)

Japanexperterna Flickr License

City-Cost

City-Cost

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