Savings and Stocks Make Japanese Households Richer Than Ever

(Bloomberg) -- While the government is heavily indebted, the wealth of Japan’s households climbed to a fresh record at the end of 2016, helped by a rebound in stocks and people saving more. 

The Japanese had a record 1,800 trillion yen ($16 trillion) in savings, stocks and other financial assets as the end of last year. Of this, 937 trillion yen was in cash and deposits.

The 20 percent rebound in Japan’s Topix index of stock since the November election of Donald Trump has boosted the wealth of Japanese households, with the of their equity holdings rising by 17 trillion since the end of September.

And even though interest rates have fallen to almost zero since the central bank introduced negative rates, savers continue to put money into bank deposits.

To contact the authors of this story: James Mayger in Tokyo at jmayger@bloomberg.net, Isaac Aquino in Tokyo at iaquino1@bloomberg.net.