Japan Household Spending: Updated Nov. 10, 2024.

Japan's household spending in September down 1.1% on year

Article Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241108/p2g/00m/0bu/024000c

Ideas:

Japanese households have been under a lot of stress since the pandemic as inflation continues in Japan with no light at the end of the tunnel in the future.

It must be very hard/difficult for the lower-income groups who have to watch every yen and have to cut back on some needed food for them or their families.

The auto/car situation has to do with the Toyota group which found out their were some discrepancies in their quality testing and shutdown some of their auto plants which might have affected sales in Japan.

The typhoon season or even the rainy season in Japan can cause a lot of problems as people don't want to go out for fear of floods and so on.

As prices continue to be high, Japanese households are cutting back on home repairs which the prices have probably skyrocketed recently, as maybe plumbers get their repair products from overseas.

And again, maybe the lower-income groups have reduced spending on everything and are just trying to make do with what they have.

The middle or upper-income groups probably didn't reduce much on food spending, but the lower-income group probably did.

As always consumers, everywhere, find substitutes if prices get too high and buying chicken instead of pork is probably one food type that consumers can easily substitute for as needed.

Most likely alcohol, beer, or even Japanese sake has become more expensive so consumers are cutting back as needed to save money.

The past summer in Japan was another record summer with higher than normal temperatures, and of course people are going to run their air conditioners to stay cool.

Obviously as the summer temperatures in Japan got hotter and hotter, consumers went out and bought summer clothes to keep themselves cool.

There used to be a phrase in Japan, during the summer called "cool summer" or something like that. It was designed as phrase to allow company employees, men, to not wear ties to the office during the summer months and companies also would reduce their use of the air conditioning systems in the buildings.

Real terms income means income, adjusted for inflation, as inflation continues to have real affect on the Japanese economy.

Household spending or consumer spending in the US, for example, as never been that strong in Japan, as the Japanese are for the most part savers and not spenders, which is the opposite of the US.

Have a nice day!