The average Japanese husband's monthly allowance slumped to the lowest level since 1982 at the start of the financial year as workers await the dividends promised by "Abenomics."
Salarymen's spending money, typically set by wives managing family budgets, was ¥38,457, down 3 percent from last year and less than half the 1990 peak, according to Shinsei Bank Ltd., a Tokyo-based lender whose data go back to 1979. The survey of 2,000 people was done April 20 and 22 via the Internet, the report published Friday showed.
With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledging to revive the world's third-largest economy through unprecedented monetary expansion, fiscal stimulus and business deregulation, salarymen allotted more of their budget to going out drinking. They went out an average 2.2 times a month, spending ¥3,474 each time, up 21 percent from last year, the Shinsei report showed.