Higher share prices lift Japan household assets to record at 2023 end

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japanese households had a record 2,141 trillion yen ($14 trillion) in assets at the end of 2023, after rising share prices boosted the value of stock and investment trust holdings and cash reserves were bolstered by winter bonuses, Bank of Japan data showed Thursday.

Holdings of securities jumped 29.2 percent to 276 trillion yen and investment trusts gained 22.4 percent to 106 trillion yen ahead of the revamp of Japan’s NISA tax-free investment scheme in January.

Both holdings were the largest since 2005 when comparable data became available.

The government has been seeking to encourage households to put more cash, which still accounts for about half of their total assets, to work by investing in stocks and bonds, among others.

Cash holdings increased 1.0 percent to a record 1,127 trillion yen, accounting for 52.6 percent of the assets held by Japanese households.

The data also showed the BOJ owned 53.78 percent of the outstanding Japanese government bonds at the end of December, falling from a record 53.86 percent recorded at the end of September, but still high.

Foreign investors held 6.68 percent of government bonds on issue, down from 6.78 percent at the end of September.

The BOJ has been buying government bonds to depress long-term interest rates, despite some relaxing of its control.

The central bank on Tuesday made a historic shift from years of unorthodox monetary policy, scrapping its yield cap program as the bond buying program is known. Still, it plans to continue buying “roughly the same amount” of bonds.