Japan has traditionally had a high savings ratio, but, in past decade the savings ratio has fallen to be close to European / US levels.
Graph showing Japan Savings Rates

Japan Saving Rates
Since 1998, though Japanese saving rates have declined.

The graph is a bit hard to read, but, since 2004, Japanese saving rates have been at 2.5- 3.0%
Currently saving rates in Japan are just under 3%.
Why Has Japanese Saving Rates fallen?
- Ageing Population. Old people run down savings
- Increase in retirement age and greater security about state provision for old people
- Changing attitudes of increased demand for current spending rather than passing it on to next generation.
- Upgrading of housing which leads to higher imputed rents.
- Increase in state retirement age to 65
- Prospects of economic upturn in mid 2000s encouraging higher consumer spending.
- Stagnant growth in real incomes for some of this period meant even though savings were falling consumer spending was low.
For more detail and explanation see this pdf and pdf2
Consumer spending in Japan
Even though saving rates in Japan have fallen. Consumer spending still accounts for a low % of GDP

Japan Consumer Spending
During the early 2000s, Japanese consumer spending was struggling to remain positive.

Japan Consumer spending
Sources of Graphs:





4 comments ↓
[...] Japan Saving Rates [...]
Hello, thanks for this information. What is your source data for the above charts?
Same for me. Could you tell me the source of the data, especially the saving rate?
Could I also get the source for the savings data? Or do you have it in an xls format?
Thanks
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