I thought Japanese people were good at saving
Desmond P. sent me a link to an interesting article this week. As well as saying that older Japanese people are more isolated than their peers in other countries as measured by number of friends, whether they have non-family members who would help them in an emergency, or whether they would help a sick neighbour, the article also has some scary money stats:
“Asked about whether they had made any post-retirement preparations by their 50s, 42.7 percent of Japanese said they had done nothing, compared with 26.1 percent in Germany, 25.4 percent in Sweden and 20.9 percent in the U.S.”
Given the uncertain outlook for the pension system in Japan (I believe it will still exist in some form in the future, although payments are likely to be much reduced), I hope all our readers are more prepared.
If not, then go to our Resources page and start educating yourself. It could just save your (quality of) life.