About That Proposed One-Time $280 Billion Tax on Foreign Corporate Profits …
One of the interesting things about studying corporations in Japan is accounting for the cultural differences. In Japan, for example, it is the housewife that has control of the family budget, and the husband is given a small allowance to spend as he desires. This allowance is called okozukai. In some cases, particularly bright women will have the okozukai structured as a percentage of the household revenue, encouraging the man to work harder.
The wife, in contrast, often seeks to build secret reserves that no one knows exist. These can be used to tide the family over in an emergency, to fund gifts, to spend on luxuries, or anything else that might come up and require cash on a short notice. These secret reserves are known as hesokuri.
It isn’t unusual for the major financial institutions in Japan to fund studies estimating the level of okozukai and hesokuri in Japan to try and project consumer confidence levels, household liquidity levels, pent up consumer demand, and possible new financial products that might be useful (and profitable for the creator). Paying attention to those numbers can be enlightening if you are thinking about Japan’s economic climate. Just like savings levels in the United States, they can provide some evidence of trends that are affecting the household level unit, which is, after all, the foundation of society and, thus, the economy.
One of the recent findings by Sompo Japan DIY Life Insurance was that 1 out of 2 of all Japanese housewives have hesokuri hidden from their husbands. In most cases, this was built over the course of years from small savings put aside and interest compounded on the principal. Most women believe the men know nothing about these liquid reserves. Understandably, the average amount of hesokuri varies by age, with those who have been in the work force longer amassing more cash. The average Japanese housewife in her 20’s has ¥1,460,000, or $18,537, hidden from her husband. The average Japanese housewife in her 50’s has ¥4,000,000, or $50,797, hidden from her husband. Most of the time, this money is hidden at home, and is almost always kept in cash so there is no record of it that could be found.
What I find particularly interesting is that 76% of the women who have hesokuri believe their husbands had no secret money of their own. For those who did believe their husband had private savings, they estimated the amount at only ¥364,000, or $4,621.
In any event, the custom is a dying one. People in my generation only cede control of the household finances to the wife half the time. In many cases, it is shared as both the man and woman work. I did a quick search after writing this post and found this article on okozukai and hesokuri, which is worth reading if you are curious about it. The entire concept of hesokuri arises because joint property does not exist in Japan the way we understand it in the west.
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