How Japan’s Wealth Distribution Shifting: A Look at the 2023 Data
In Japan, a research institute NRI: Nomura Research Institute has been publishing a “Japanese Wealth Pyramid” bi-annually, and the latest version(as of 2023) became available a few weeks ago.
The pyramid categorize household into five layers based on the net wealth, without real estate.
- Super Rich: JPY 500 M. or more
- Rich: 100 M. or more and less than 500 M.
- Pre-Rich: 50 M. or more and less than 100 M.
- Upper-mass: 30 M. or more and less than 50 M
- Mass: Below 30 M.
Many Japanese people interested in financial matters pay attention this pyramid, and then, I hope this is useful when you think about money issue in your country.
Japanese Wealth Pyramid
As you will see in a table above, the coverage of household of Super Rich, Rich and Pre-rich is only 10% but their net asset consist of 45% of the total net wealth amount, on the other hand, Mass occupies about 80% but their net asset amount is less than 40%.
Though Gini Index in Japan is relatively lower to other countries such as the US and China, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is big and has been becoming bigger recently in Japan as well.
Change among Rich People in Japan
It has long been said that Japan is not economically competitive any more, but sum of the Super Rich and the Rich has been gradually increasing, as described in a line chart above.
This study started in 2005, and its portion was 1.8% then, and now it has become almost 3%.
One of the big backgrounds is depreciation of JPY.
These days, many Japanese people have been preferring foreign-based asset(ex. the US stocks) and then, the JPY depreciation has been strong tail wind to them, which helps them increase their asset.
Of course, some may think that JPY 100 M.(about $667 k.) seems [quite] lower as a criteria of the Rich particularly if you live in countries such as the US, Switzerland and Singapore etc.
If you think that, I strongly agree with your idea and would like to hear any comment on criteria in your country.