IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dpr/wpaper/0859.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are Japanese Households Financially Healthy, and If So, Why? A Group of Seven (G7) Comparison

Author

Listed:
  • Charles Yuji Horioka

Abstract

In this paper, I conduct an international comparison of the financial health of households using data on household wealth and indebtedness for the Group of Seven (G7) countries and show that, even though household borrowings in Japan were the highest among the G7 countries, at least until 2000, household assets were also high in Japan, as a result of which household net worth and financial health in Japan were among the highest in the G7 countries. Turning to long-term trends in Japan over time, I find that Japan has shown a sharp increase over time in household borrowing, at least until 2000, and a sharp increase over time in both household assets and household net worth, at least until 1990. It is not clear whether the greater financial health of Japanese households is due more to culture or to government policies, institutions, and other non-cultural factors, but it appears that long-term trends over time in household assets, liabilities, and net worth in Japan can be explained much better by non-cultural factors than by culture.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Yuji Horioka, 2012. "Are Japanese Households Financially Healthy, and If So, Why? A Group of Seven (G7) Comparison," ISER Discussion Paper 0859, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    • Handle: RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0859
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iser.osaka-u.ac.jp/library/dp/2012/DP0859.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Horioka, Charles Yuji, 1990. "Why is Japan's household saving rate so high? A literature survey," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 49-92, March.
    2. Scott Bowman, 2011. "Multigenerational Interactions in Black Middle Class Wealth and Asset Decision Making," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 15-26, March.
    3. Charles Yuji Horioka, 2004. "Are the Japanese Unique? An Analysis of Consumption and Saving Behavior in Japan," ISER Discussion Paper 0606, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    4. Charles Yuji Horioka, 2007. "A Survey of Household Saving Behavior in Japan," ISER Discussion Paper 0684, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Horioka, Charles Yuji & Niimi, Yoko, 2020. "Was the expansion of housing credit in Japan good or bad?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    2. Charles Yuji Horioka, 2021. "Is the selfish life-cycle model more applicable in Japan and, if so, why? A literature survey," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 157-187, March.
    3. Eiji Fujii, 2017. "Government Size, Trade Openness, and Output Volatility: A Case of fully Integrated Economies," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 661-684, September.
    4. Jakob Kapeller & Bernhard Schütz, 2013. "Exploring Pluralist Economics: The Case of the Minsky-Veblen Cycles," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 515-524.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Horioka, Charles Yuji, 2016. "Are the Japanese Unique? Evidence from Household Saving and Bequest Behavior," AGI Working Paper Series 2016-12, Asian Growth Research Institute.
    2. Horioka, Charles Yuji, 2020. "Does the Selfish Life-Cycle Model Apply in the Case of Japan?," AGI Working Paper Series 2020-04, Asian Growth Research Institute.
    3. Charles Yuji HORIOKA & Wataru SUZUKI & Tatsuo HATTA, 2007. "Aging, Savings, and Public Pensions in Japan," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 2(2), pages 303-319, December.
    4. Charles Yuji Horioka, 2021. "Is the selfish life-cycle model more applicable in Japan and, if so, why? A literature survey," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 157-187, March.
    5. Muellbauer, John & Murata, Keiko, 2009. "Consumption, Land Prices and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism in Japan," CEPR Discussion Papers 7269, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Latsos Sophia & Schnabl Gunther, 2021. "Determinants of Japanese Household Saving Behavior in the Low-Interest Rate Environment," The Economists' Voice, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 81-99, December.
    7. Charles Yuji Horioka, 2007. "A Survey of Household Saving Behavior in Japan," ISER Discussion Paper 0684, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    8. Charles Yuji Horioka, 2008. "The Flow of Household Funds in Japan," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 4(1), pages 37-52, December.
    9. Gary Robinson, 2017. "Pragmatic financialisation: the role of the Japanese Post Office," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 61-75, January.
    10. Charles Yuji Horioka, 2016. "Is Imbalances And Current Account Surpluses In Japan: In Memory Of Professor Ronald I. Mckinnon," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(02), pages 1-17, June.
    11. Dekle, Robert, 2004. "Financing consumption in an aging Japan: The role of foreign capital inflows and immigration," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 506-527, December.
    12. Jeffrey A. Frankel., 1992. "The Evolving Japanese Financial System, and the Cost of Capital," Center for International and Development Economics Research (CIDER) Working Papers C92-002, University of California at Berkeley.
    13. Charles Yuji Horioka & Takaaki Nomoto & Akiko Terada-Hagiwara, 2013. "Why has Japan’s Massive Government Debt Not Wreaked Havoc (Yet)?," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201310, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    14. Selahattin Imrohoroglu & Ayse Imrohoroglu & Kaiji Chen, 2006. "The Japanese Saving Rate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1850-1858, December.
    15. Masahiro Hori & Koichiro Iwamoto & Takeshi Niizeki & Fumihiko Suga, 2016. "Do the Rich Save More in Japan? Evidence Based on two Micro Data Sets for the 2000s," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 474-494, December.
    16. Kitamura, Yukinobu & Takayama, Noriyuki & Arita, Fumiko, 2001. "Household savings in Japan revisited," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 135-153, June.
      • Kitamura, Yukinobu & 北村, 行伸 & キタムラ, ユキノブ & Takayama, Noriyuki & 高山, 憲之 & タカヤマ, ノリユキ & Arita, Fumiko & 有田, 富美子, 2000. "Household Savings in Japan Revisited," Discussion Paper 6, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    17. Maiko Koga, 2005. "The Decline of Japan's Saving Rate and Demographic Effects," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 05-E-10, Bank of Japan.
    18. Xin Wang & Yi Wen, 2011. "Can rising housing prices explain China’s high household saving rate?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 93(Mar), pages 67-88.
    19. Shusaku Yamamoto, 2004. "Why do some countries save more than others?," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers g-142, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.
    20. Wei-Bin Zhang, 2016. "Population Growth And Preference Change In A Generalized Solow Growth Model With Gender Time Distributions," Oradea Journal of Business and Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 7-30, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0859. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Librarian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isosujp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.