Japan's frugal housewives tighten their belts
Japan's homemakers have made an art of living frugally in one of the
world's most expensive countries, and they are now pruning spending
further as the economy plunges into what could be a long recession.
For many of Japan's 17 million homemakers, managing household
finances on their husband's salary, averaging about 270,000 yen a month
(about $2900), is already a struggle.
As layoffs spread, consumer confidence has nosedived. Household
spending, which makes up more than half the economy, dropped 3.8 percent
in October, sparking a vicious cycle that is hurting retailers and will
likely put more jobs at risk.
Asuka Suzuki, 27, who lives with her husband on the northern island
of Hokkaido, says keeping monthly food spending to 19,000 yen ($205) a
month, about a third of the national average for two people, requires
meticulous planning and discipline.
"I do sometimes feel a bit down because I can't buy clothes, go
travelling or take up any expensive hobbies," Suzuki said in an e-mail
interview. "But I have a goal, which is to buy a house some day, so I
just keep on trying."
Before setting out food shopping, she searches the Internet for
bargains at all the local supermarkets, makes an inventory of the
contents of her refrigerator and puts together a weekly menu.
Only then does she tuck the minimum necessary cash into her wallet -
no credit cards - and, weather permitting, heads out on her bicycle to
the supermarket.
Suzuki is just one of the hundreds of housewives featured in "Sutekina
Okusan" or "Lovely Wife", a monthly magazine offering recipes and tips
for the budget-conscious, from switching off the TV to save on
electricity, to re-using water after rinsing rice. Other suggestions
include using old clothes to make cushion covers and making children's
playhouses out of cardboard boxes.
Food is the biggest expense for many Japanese households, and even
the thriftiest housewives often pride themselves on serving something
different every night.
"At first I was astonished," said Satoko Sugiki, an editor at the
magazine, of her first encounters with the determined women who reveal
their spending habits in the magazine.
"But now it seems quite normal for someone to spend only 10,000 yen
($108) a month on food, even though it's amazing when you think about
it." A less careful shopper could spend more than 10,000 yen on a single
gift-wrapped melon at one of Japan's upmarket department stores.
As shoppers turned their backs on such high-priced goods, sales at
department stores have fallen. They dropped nearly 7 percent in October
on the same period the previous year, the eighth consecutive month of
decline. Instead, shoppers hit bargain stores. Discount clothing chain
Uniqlo saw a jump in sales of more than 30 percent in November.
"People are shopping at places that offer good value for money. But
there are very few companies benefiting," said Dairo Murata, a retail
analyst at Credit Suisse in Tokyo.
Bookstores display notebooks for recording household accounts for the
new breed of careful consumer.
REUTERS
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