世論 What Japan Thinks

It is the tradition that the wife manages the family budget, and that the husband merely gets a pocket money allowance, but this recent survey from iShare looked at the current situation regarding money management.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 5th of April 2010 1,275 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.3% of the sample were male, 31.1% were in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, and 35.2% in their forties.

I was watching a program on general money-related advice a couple of days ago, and they said that actually not giving the husband an allowance is better, or if there is an allowance, make it a percentage of salary (including bonus!) as an incentive. To illustrate the point, they interviewed a few people on the street and the guys with allowances were asked what they did when their pocket money ran out. The answers broadcast included buying stuff with credit card instead (presumably the wife didn’t check receipts) or borrowing money from their parents!

Research results

Q1: Are you currently married? (Sample size=1,275)

	All	Male N=705	Female N=570
Yes	42.9%	40.9%	45.4%
No	57.1%	59.1%	54.6%

Q2: Would you not want your wife to use any of the following money-saving techniques? Regardless of whether your wife actually does them, answer what you’d hate if she did. For unmarried men, imagine if you were married. The techniques include: being particular about turning off lights, unplugging appliances; not giving birthday, anniversary presents; cutting back on eating out; going round supermarkets just to save 1 yen here and there; taking home vast amounts of supermarket plastic bags; using the same bathwater twice; setting up separate piggy banks for 1 yen coins, 5 yen coins and 10 yen coins; only buying clothes, shoes at sales; when going places, choosing the cheapest rather than most convenient route; selling old clothes at fleamarkets, net auctions; cutting husband’s hair; and when eating out only choosing restaurants with coupons, other special offers. (Sample size=705, male)

	All	Married N=288	Unmarried N=417
Yes, would not want her to do some (to SQs)	55.3%	50.3%	58.8%
No, wouldn’t mind if she did all	44.7%	49.7%	41.2%

Q2SQ1: Which money-saving techniques would you not want your wife to use? (Sample size=390, multiple answer)

	All	Married N=145	Unmarried N=245
Taking home vast amounts of supermarket plastic bags	54.1%	53.8%	54.3%
Using the same bathwater twice	44.6%	44.1%	44.9%
Going round supermarkets just to save 1 yen here and there	41.0%	39.3%	42.0%
Cutting husband’s hair	39.2%	37.2%	40.4%
Only buying clothes, shoes at sales	29.0%	26.2%	30.6%
When going places, choosing the cheapest rather than most convenient route	27.7%	29.7%	26.5%
Not giving birthday, anniversary presents	24.4%	22.8%	25.3%
Setting up separate piggy banks for 1 yen coins, 5 yen coins and 10 yen coins	23.6%	18.6%	26.5%
Cutting back on eating out	12.8%	14.5%	11.8%
When eating out only choosing restaurants with coupons, other special offers	11.0%	11.0%	11.0%
Being particular about turning off lights, unplugging appliances	10.8%	11.0%	10.6%
Selling old clothes at fleamarkets, net auctions	6.4%	5.5%	6.9%
Other	2.1%	4.1%	0.8%

Q2SQ2: Why did you choose the answers in Q2SQ1? (Sample size=390, multiple answer)

Don’t think economising itself has much meaning	32.3%
It makes me sad to see such detailed management	29.5%
I lose motivation through such detailed management	26.7%
Rather than having the wife economise, I’d want something other to be done	19.7%
Don’t want wife to be involved in such household matters	9.7%
Neighbours would think the wife is hard up	8.2%
I think I can economise better than the wife	5.1%
Other	25.1%

Q2SQ2 did not have a breakdown by marital status.

Q3: Do you use any of the following money-saving techniques? For unmarried women, imagine if you were married. The techniques include: being particular about turning off lights, unplugging appliances; not giving birthday, anniversary presents; cutting back on eating out; going round supermarkets just to save 1 yen here and there; taking home vast amounts of supermarket plastic bags; using the same bathwater twice; setting up separate piggy banks for 1 yen coins, 5 yen coins and 10 yen coins; only buying clothes, shoes at sales; when going places, choosing the cheapest rather than most convenient route; selling old clothes at fleamarkets, net auctions; cutting husband’s hair; and when eating out only choosing restaurants with coupons, other special offers. (Sample size=570, female)

	All	Married N=259	Unmarried N=311
Yes, do some of them (to SQ)	70.2%	71.8%	68.8%
No, wouldn’t mind if she did all	29.8%	28.2%	31.2%

Q3SQ: Which of the following money-saving techniques do you use? (Sample size=400, multiple answer)

	All	Married N=186	Unmarried N=214
Being particular about turning off lights, unplugging appliances	67.0%	69.4%	65.0%
Cutting back on eating out	55.3%	55.9%	54.7%
When eating out only choosing restaurants with coupons, other special offers	40.3%	39.2%	41.1%
Only buying clothes, shoes at sales	27.5%	28.0%	27.1%
Going round supermarkets just to save 1 yen here and there	26.8%	22.6%	30.4%
Using the same bathwater twice	26.5%	25.8%	27.1%
When going places, choosing the cheapest rather than most convenient route	25.0%	17.2%	31.8%
Selling old clothes at fleamarkets, net auctions	23.0%	22.6%	23.4%
Not giving birthday, anniversary presents	9.3%	11.8%	7.0%
Cutting husband’s hair	8.3%	12.9%	4.2%
Taking home vast amounts of supermarket plastic bags	6.0%	5.4%	6.5%
Setting up separate piggy banks for 1 yen coins, 5 yen coins and 10 yen coins	5.8%	7.0%	4.7%
Other	8.3%	11.8%	5.1%

Q4: If you marry in the future, would you want to manage the family budget yourself? (Sample size=728, unmarried)

	All	Male N=417	Female N=311
Want to manage it myself (to SQ)	24.3%	23.7%	25.1%
Perhaps want to manage it myself (to SQ)	46.8%	37.4%	59.5%
Perhaps don’t want to manage it myself	23/2%	30.2%	13.8%
Don’t want to manage it myself	5.6%	8.6%	1.6%

Q4SQ: Why would you want to manage the family budget yourself? (Sample size=518, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=255	Female N=263
Would worry about passing responsibility over to my partner	56.6%	47.8%	65.0%
Want to control the family budget myself	43.5%	50.2%	37.3%
Don’t want to be limited as to how much money I can freely use	31.1%	35.3%	27.0%
I should be able to supress wasteful spending better than my partner	24.9%	22.0%	27.8%
I should be able to save better than my partner	20.5%	18.4%	22.4%
I should be able to manage the family budget better than my partner	18.9%	18.4%	19.4%
I don’t want my partner to know how much I earn	6.6%	5.1%	8.0%
Other	4.6%	5.1%	4.2%

Q5: Who currently manages the family budget? (Sample size=547, married)

	All	Male N=288	Female N=259
Primarily myself	56.7%	45.1%	65.9%
Primarily my partner	43.3%	54.9%	30.5%

Q6: Do you have confidence in your money management skills? (Sample size=1,275)

	All	Male N=705	Female N=570
Complete confidence	7.3%	8.9%	5.3%
Some confidence	42.4%	43.8%	40.7%
Little confidence	36.5%	33.8%	40.0%
No confidence	13.7%	13.5%	14.0%