Asahi Shimbun recently reported that more and more university students are trying to save money even before they graduate and get a job. The article conjectures that young people are anxious about the future and uncertain about their job prospects so they think they have to be financially prepared.
One 19-year-old Keio University sophomore, who commutes to school from his parents' home in Tokyo, managed to save ¥1.8 million over the course of a year. He works part-time 3 or 4 days a week in an office, sometimes until midnight, and receives ¥250,000 a month, which is actually quite good for part-time work at that age. He saves half his pay, and the rest goes to his ¥1 million a year tuition, which he pays himself. He spends about ¥30,000 a month on food, ¥10,000 on "music activities" (he's in a band), ¥10,000 on clothing ("I buy cheap clothes") and "only" ¥10,000 a month for his phone (because he uses Line). His sole major outside expense was a snowboarding excursion last winter that cost him ¥100,000.