Fewer people saving winter bonuses, signaling inflation’s harshness: Japan survey

TOKYO — A recent survey on how people in Japan plan to spend their winter bonuses has underscored their struggles in making ends meet, with the percentage of those who said they would save the money hitting a record low.

Tokyo-based Loyalty Marketing Inc., which operates the Ponta point service, released the latest survey findings on Oct. 29. This year’s survey, whose first edition dates back to 2014, was conducted online in late September, and 3,000 Ponta users aged 20 and older who are members of the Ponta survey site responded.

Asked how they will be spending their winter bonuses, with multiple answers allowed, the most common response, excluding the 47.7% who answered that they were either not receiving bonuses or unsure if they would be (up 0.7 percentage points from the previous year), was “savings” at 33.5%. However, the proportion of people giving this answer has continued to decline each year since 2019, when 40.5% provided the same response. By age, the largest drop for this answer was seen among people in their 30s, falling 5.9 points to stand at 38.3%.

Following savings, the second most common use for bonuses was “travel with accommodation,” at 6.7%, unchanged from the previous year, followed by “everyday groceries” at 6.4%, up 0.9 points from the year before. Other answers included “eating out” and “property accumulation savings plans” offered by their workplaces, but none of these categories showed a notable increase from the previous year.

When asked about their expectations for bonuses compared to winter 2023, 15.5% anticipated an increase, surpassing the 12.5% who expected a decrease. Meanwhile, 64.6% said they expected “no change.” Asked about the payment amount per household, 22.1% of respondents answered “200,000 (about $1,300) to under 400,000 yen ($2,600),” forming the largest group, followed by “400,000 to less than 600,000 yen ($3,900)” at 20.9% and “less than 200,000 yen” at 17.6%.

Despite a decline in people’s intentions to put bonuses into savings, there was no notable shift toward other spending categories besides everyday groceries. From this data, a Loyalty Marketing PR representative inferred that bonuses are “likely being spent on everyday expenses, such as food,” reflecting the ongoing strains on household budgets due to rising prices.

(Japanese original by Yuko Shimada, Business News Department)