Chapter 4: Women and Financial Assets

Introduction
This chapter considers financial assets and earnings as opposed to material assets
including housing assets, and explore how the pattern of ownership of financial assets
paints a different picture (if any) of women from the previous chapter. The total
wealth of households is made up with their income and assets. Income includes
earnings from both economic activity and other sources such as pensions, rent fromproperties, and profits from investments, while assets can be categorised as financial
assets (including savings and investments) and material assets (eg ownership of realestate, automobiles and, in Japan’s case, membership of a golf club!). Overall assets
of individuals or households also consist of the sum of both positive and negative
assets (debts).

Compared with housing assets, financial assets can be more

personalised and may reflect women’s financial status as an individual moreaccurately, especially in societies like Japan where ‘joint accounts’ are not possible.
Cross-cultural comparison will highlight different accumulation patterns of financial
assets among women.

The survey specifically asked questions in three areas:

women’s savings, investments, and pensions. In particular, the survey aimed todisaggregate women’s financial assets from those of the households for married or
partnered samples.
Savings
Savings are potentially an interesting area to examine cross-national differences,considering the assumed differences in saving behaviours between the two societies.
Despite the prolonged recession of some 15 years, for example, Japan is still known
as a nation of savers. However, does it only apply to male-heads of the households,
or do women also save a considerable amount in Japan compared with their British
counterparts?
The majority of the British sample had saving accounts in banks or building
societies. Thirty-three per cent (331 women) had one saving account, 20% (206

－ 19 －

women) had two, and 12% (119 women) had three saving accounts, while 22% (222
women) did not have any. Even among those who had savings, however, the amounts
were not very significant. Twenty-four percent (183 women) of all the samples had
savings less than £500 and 58% under £5,000. On the other hand, only 38.6% ofJapanese samples had savings under one million yen (£5,000: £1=¥200), which was
20 percentage points lower than the British samples. Over 10% of the Japanesesamples had savings over four million yen (£20,000) while 8% of the British samples
did so. We also have to note that 24% of the Japanese samples said they had nosavings (16% of married samples did not even have savings under their husband’sname). Overall, while a half of the British women with savings had less than £2,500,
their Japanese counterparts are slightly better off in terms of savings.
As Figures 4.1 and 4.2 indicate, there were clear age differences in bothsocieties as older age groups held more savings than their younger counterparts. In
Britain, over a half of those aged between 25-34 had either no savings (22%) or
savings under £500 (32%), while higher percentages of women in the older age group(45-54) had more substantial amount of savings (see Figure 4.1). In Japan, similarly,
over a half of those aged between 25-34 had either no savings (25%) or savings under¥500,000 (£2500) (30%) and 16% of those aged between 45-54 had savings over
£20,000.

Figure 4.1: Amount of savings in total (including joint savings) by age in Britain
45
40
35
30

25-34

25

35-44

20

45-54

15
10
5
0

－ 20 －

Figure 4.2: Amount of savings in total by age in Japan
35
30
25
24-34

20

35-44
45-54

15
10
5

N

on
e

0

Income is one of the most significant indicator to determine the amount of savings thewomen held. Among those who were earning low incomes, the saving amounts were
inevitably lower, and their amount of savings increased as their income increased(Figures 4.3 and 4.4).

Figure 4.3: Amount of savings in total (including joint savings) by women’s
income in Britain£40000+Less than £500
£500-999£30000-39999£1000-2499£20000-29999£2500-4999£5000-9999£10000-19999£10000-19999£20000-29999£5000-9999£30000-49999£50000+

up to £4999
0%

20%

40%

60%

－ 21 －

80%

100%

Figure 4.4: Amount of savings in total by women’s income in JapanNo savings£20000+Less than£2500£2500-4999£15000-20000£5000-9999£10000-15000£10000-14999£6500-10000£15000-19999£20000-24999£50-6500£30000-49999
no income£50000+
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

The above figures in Britain were not strictly the women’s ‘personal savings’ but
included their ‘household savings’. Fifty-four percent of the above savings were held
jointly by the respondent and their partner, and only 25% (172 women) of the sample
held their savings solely. The joint account holders (all of them either married or
cohabiting) were further asked about the amount of savings they held personally – thedata showed that distribution of the amounts remained relatively similar but the
number of women who fell in the categories was halved (Table 4.1).
Table 4.1: Comparing the amount of the women’s household and personalsavings in Britain
Household Women'ssavings personalsavings
Less than £500
£500-999£1000-2499£2500-4999£5000-9999£10000-19999£20000-29999£30000-39999£40000-49999£50000+Total

183 (24%) 98 (26%)
64 (9%)
26 (7%)
98 (13%) 48 (13%)
88 (12%) 38 (10%)
73 (10%) 29 (8%)
63 (8%)
23 (6%)
28 (4%)
12 (3%)
10 (1%)
2
14 (2%)
2
22 (3%)
3643
281－ 22 －

Due to the fact that joint accounts are not possible in Japan, the Japanese sample was
asked separately about the amount of savings they have under their husband’s nameas well as their own. In general, the amount of savings under the husband’s name wasmuch higher than that of women’s (Table 4.2).
Table 4.2: Comparing the amount of the husband’s and wife’s savings in Japan(married samples only [exclude single women])No savings
Under £2500£2500-4999£5000-9999£10000-14999£15000-19999£20000-24999£25000-49999£50000+Wife’ssavings
24.1%
24.0
14.6
16.0
9.3
2.7
3.1
4.0
2.2

Husband’ssavings
15.8
15.8
14.0
17.5
11.1
4.6
7.0
8.6
5.6

Employment status and marital status are another determinants when examining thewomen’s saving patterns.

Their employment status – full-time, part-time or no

income (at home or not seeking work) – dictates the levels of their financial assets inboth societies. In Japan, there was a clear differentiation between regular and nonregular (part-time, contract) workers and a half of the women who were employedfull-time had savings over £5,000 while only one-third of their non-regularcounterparts did so (Table 4.3). In Britain, on the other hand, being employed fulltime or part-time did not really make a significant difference in their savings (Table
4.4). Inevitably, in both societies, however, those who were not engaged in economic
activities held much less savings – more than a half of the samples had no savings orsavings less than £2,500 in Japan and more than a half had less than £1,000 (42%were even less than £500) in Britain.

－ 23 －

Table 4.3: Amount of savings (wife's name) by employment status in Japan (%)
No savings
Under £2500£2500-4999£5000-9999£10000-14999£15000-19999£20000-24999£25000-49999£50000+Manager,full-time
11.1
21.4
15.6
20.8
10
3.4
3.2
10.6
3.9

Non regular Selfworker
employed
23.7
19
29.7
22.6
14.4
15.5
15
15.5
8.5
7.7
2.2
3
2.4
5.4
2.5
7.1
1.4
4.2

Without job
30.4
20.4
14.5
15.5
8.2
2.4
3.6
3.1
1.9

Table 4.4: Amount of savings by employment status in Britain (%)
Less than £500
£500-999£1000-2499£2500-4999£5000-9999£10000-19999£20000-29999£30000-39999£40000-49999£50000+Full-timePart-time

20
9
14
12
10
8
4
1
3
2

23
8
14
11
11
11
5
2
1
2

At home/not
seeking work
42
11
9
10
11
4
2
0
0
2

Other
40
4
13
11
3
6
3
2
3
8

In terms of marital status, unmarried women had slightly more savings than theirmarried counterparts reflecting their ‘employed’ status (unmarried women are more
likely to be employed than married women), while divorced women had the leastsavings in Japan (Table 4.5). Widows, on the other hand, held the highest amount ofsavings on average – for example, one-third of widows had savings more than
£25,000 in Japan. Similar to the patterns of home ownership, inheritance from latehusbands tends to boost the level of their wealth. The British data however showed
different patterns of accumulation. Married and co-habiting women had the highest
amount of savings on average. The low level of savings among single women may
reflect the fact that single women were more likely to be younger (25-34) in our
sample (and the younger age group held the least amount of savings in comparison).
It is difficult to conclude from the aggregated data that there is distinctive economic
fortune between divorcees and widows in Britain. However, almost a half of the－ 24 －

women in this category held savings less than £1,000 may mean women without apartner is in general disadvantaged from the asset accumulation (even the aggregateddata did not show the high amount savers in this category with Japan).
Table 4.5: Amount of savings by marital status in Japan (%)
No savings
Under £2500£2500-4999£5000-9999£10000-14999£15000-19999£20000-24999£25000-49999£50000+Married
24.1
24
14.6
16
9.3
2.7
3.1
4
2.2

Divorced
23.4
27.7
13.8
13.8
6.4
3.2
4.3
4.3
3.3

Widowed
14.3
9.5
9.5
19
4.8
0
9.5
28.6
4.8

Never
married
20.8
23.3
16.3
17.9
6.3
2.5
2.5
6.7
3.7

Table 4.6: Amount of savings by marital status in Britain (%)

Less than £500
£500-999£1000-2499£2500-4999£5000-9999£10000-19999£20000-29999£30000-39999£40000-49999£50000+Married/ cohabiting

Single

22
7
13
13
10
9
4
1
2
2

29
16
12
9
9
9
0
1
0
0

Divorced/widowed/separated
36
11
14
8
9
4
4
3
0
4

The women were saving for a variety of reasons, which were often related to theirlife-course events. In Britain, approximately a half of the sample was saving toprovide a sense of security. This answer can be however interpreted in a variety ofways – saving for old age, to supplement pensions, and so on – and may overlap other
responses. The women in the older age group (45-54) were more likely to save for
their old age care (16%), to supplement their pensions (18%) and to pass on assets torelatives (9%), compared with their younger counterparts (25-34) (7%, 7% and 1%,
respectively). The life-cycle model of savings is applicable in the British case sincepeople tend to be saving towards events in their own life-course rather than saving up
for the future generations. Thirty percent of the sample (223 women) mentioned－ 25 －

‘other’ reasons for savings. Single women were more concerned about their costs forold age care (16%) compared with their married and cohabiting counterparts (9%)
reflecting the fact of absence of spouses who are often first call of support.
In Japan, the highest percentage of the respondents (37.7%) mentioned ‘passing onto
relatives’ as the reason for saving (multiple answers). This may reflect the cultural
practice of Japanese families focusing on trans-generational accumulation of assets.
Another interesting point is in relation to people’s perception of risks under the
prolonged recession in Japan – securing a stable life (32%), preparing for tighthousehold budget (27%) and providing a sense of security (10%) were all scored highreflecting increasing precariousness among households in their employment status,
conditions, and incomes.

In general, considerably less percentages of people

mentioned savings as part of their old age security (9.8% for old age care; 9.3% forsupplementing pensions) compared with their British counterparts. When we look at
the results by age, the similar patterns have emerged. Higher percentages of the older
respondents mentioned old age care (15.8%) and pension supplement (13.4%) as
reasons for savings compared with their younger counterparts (4.6% and 2.9%
respectively by the 25-34 age group). The reason (to pass onto relatives) scored thehighest (34.5%) by the youngest age group may mean more on helping children in
their up-bringing process (ie funding their education) than on inheritance perspectives.
Pensions
In Britain, overall, 45% (449 women) mentioned that they would have a basic statepension through their National Insurance contributions when they reached retirementage; 36% (363 women) were contributing to an occupational pension but 29% (290women) did not have any type of pension. While in Japan those who claimed not tohave any pension were much lower in percentage (11.6%); and the majority (84.9%)
were expecting to receive state pensions thanks to a series of pension reforms by thegovernments to provide wider eligibility to different sections of the society. Under
the unique characteristics of the Japanese pension system, 43% of the women were
eligible to claim the state pension through dependent status (Class 3) on their spouse
who contributes in Class 2 category without any additional contribution bythemselves or their spouse. Twenty-six percent of the women had their own
state/occupations pensions (Class 2) and 17% made the flat-rate contribution to Class－ 26 －

1 pensions. Some 17% were insuring themselves in the private market (personal
pension insurance) on top of the state / occupational provision.
The breakdown by age and marital status in Table 4.7 revealed that the women in theyoungest age bracket were less likely to be contributing towards pensions (133samples: 39% of the age group), while those in the older age group are more likely tohave both state and occupational pensions (51% and 43% respectively in the 45-54
age group) in Britain. Moreover, married/cohabiting women were more likely to havesome sort of pension compared with their single and divorced/separated counterparts.
Similarly in Japan, the highest percentages of the women in 25-34 had no pensions
while private investment in pension insurance increased by age (Table 4.8). The rates
of marriage may reflect the type of public pension the women were ‘contributing’towards across the age groups: the younger age group (25-34) may have included
more unmarried and childless women who were likely to be in employment and thus
contribute towards Class 2 pension scheme while child care responsibility of those
aged 35-44 may have helped increase their dependency on their husband (Class 3
pension scheme).
Table 4.7: Types of pension by age and marital status in Britain (%)

Basic State Pension(through NI
contributions)
Additional State
Pension (SERPS)
Occupational Pension
Stakeholder Pension
Other private pension
None of these
Don't know/not stated

25-34

Age
35-44

45-54

36

48

51

Married/Livingtogether
44

2

6

4

4

3

5

28
4
12
39
2

38
3
14
23
5

43
3
12
25
2

38
4
14
27
2

27
3
14
34
6

38
3
7
33
3

－ 27 －

Marital status
SingleDivorced/
Widowed/Separated
42
46

Table 4.8: Types of pension by age and marital status in Japan（％）

Public Pension Class 1
Public Pension Class 2
Public Pension Class 3
Additional/Corporate
Pensions
Personal Pension
Insurance
No pension
Other

25-34

Age
35-44

45-54

Marital status
Married Divorced Widowed Nevermarried
14.4
31
40.9
23.8
20.9
46
31.8
51.2
51.5
1
9.1
0
1.2
1
4.5
1.2

15
28.7
38.2
0.6

15.7
21.9
46.5
2

19.1
26.8
42.7
1

8.6

20.1

21.3

17.1

14

27.3

15.3

14.6
0.1

11
0.5

9.5
0.1

10.2
0.1

20
1

9.1
0

18.5
1.2

Employment status and income level are strong determinants in gaining access to
occupational pensions, let alone other pensions including basic state pension. Fiftyfour percent and 46% of those in full-time work had a basic state pension andoccupational pension, respectively in Britain. Over 70% of the women who were
earning between £20,000 and £39,999 were contributing towards an occupational
pension, while over 40% of those earning less than £10,000 had no pension.
Moreover, the higher income, the more likely that the women had a private pension in
Britain (Figure 4.5).
Figure 4.5: Types of pension by income level in Britain (%)£40000+

Basic State Pension(through NI contributions)£30000-£39999

Additional State Pension(SERPS)
Occupational Pension£20000-£29999

Stakeholder Pension£10000-£19999

Other private pension£5000-£9999

None of theseUp to £4999
0%

20%

40%

60%

80% 100%

While in Japan, Class III pension contributors were concentrated in the bottom two
income bands (no income and income under £6,500) reflecting the dependent status ofmarried women. ¥1,300,000 (£6,500) is a threshold for a second earner (not always－ 28 －

but usually wives) to remain dependent on their partner to maximise their tax benefits
as a household. Otherwise, once their income exceeds £6,500 the women usuallycontribute themselves toward Class II pension. Also, the higher their income is, themore likely that the women held their own private pension insurance (Figure 4.6).
Figure 4.6: Types of pension by income level in Japan (%)
Public pension Class I£20000+Public pension Class II£15000-19999

Public pension Class III£10000-14999

Additional / Corporate
pension£6500-9999

Private pension insurance

Under £6500

Other pensions

No income
0%

20%

40%

60%

80% 100%

No pension

When the women were asked the reasons for needing the pensions, the majority
mentioned financial security in later life in both societies. The older the age group,
the more likely they answered the need for the pensions ‘to supplement the statepension’ and this was consistent between the two societies. It can be also interpreted
that achieving higher incomes in old age can provide them additional money to pay
necessary old age-related services (thus overlap with other answers). Those who
answered ‘to spend on luxuries’ or ‘to allow me to retire early’ were a small minority.
Investments
In both societies, almost a half of the female samples did not have any investment
under their own names. In Britain, as Figure 4.7 indicates, the women in the oldest
age bracket (45-54) were more likely to have some sort of investments, solely or
jointly with their partner. The most popular type of investments across the age groups
was Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) (tax-free saving accounts), which tend to beflexible, have reasonable interest rates, and are low risk compared with other types of－ 29 －

investment. The overwhelming majority of the women in the youngest age group had
no investments – over a half of the women in the 25-34 age group and 47% of those in
the 35-44 age group. Almost the only means of investments in Japan was private life
assurance (46.7%) – the majority of the nation insure themselves in the private market,
and there are a variety of products available including life assurance combined withsaving element, pension insurance, and children’s education insurance.
Figure 4.7: Types of investments (including joint investments) by age groups in
Britain (multiple answers)
None of these
Others
PEPS/Unit Trust/Investment Trust
45-54

Long-term saving plan

35-44
ISA

25-34

Stocks and shares
Other national savings
Premium bonds
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Figure 4.8: Types of investments by age groups in Japan (multiple answers)
None of these
Others45-54

Life assurances

35-44
25-34

Valuablesecurities
National bond /public bond
0

10

20

－ 30 －

30

40

50

60

70

In terms of marital status, 61% (93 women) of the single female sample had no
investments compared with 38% (265 women) of their married/cohabiting
counterparts in Britain, while in Japan the considerably higher rates of the widowed
samples had life assurance (73%) compared with their divorced or never-marriedcounterparts. Those in the older age groups were likely to be widowed, which also
influenced the high percentage. In Japan, self-employed sample scored the highest as
life assurance holder (59%) reflecting their disadvantaged position in accessing
company-based welfare.
Tenure is another indicator to determine the existence of investments since
77% of social tenants and 58% of the private tenant sample had no investments, while
74% of those who owned their property outright and 63% of the owners with amortgage had some sort of investment in Britain. In Japan, also, those who lived in
the rented sector (public, private and living in property owned by relatives) were more
likely to have no investment (63%, 58% and 51% of the samples respectively)
compared with their owner-occupied counterparts; and significantly higher
percentages of the women who own property solely or jointly had investments (61%of those who owned their property outright and 59% of the owners with a mortgage
had life assurance; and 13% of the owners without mortgage had stock and shares).
Moreover, those who had dependent children were more likely not to have any
investments in Britain (51% of the sample with dependent children) while 36% of
their counterparts without dependent children did not.

Their income levels also

determined the existence and type of investment. No clear distinction was found inJapan between those with dependant children and those without them.
The reasons for having investments vary according to their age, tenure, marital
status and employment status in both societies.

The percentage of those who

answered ‘to pay for old age care’ and ‘to supplement pension’, for example,
increases with age. Homeowners were more likely to invest ‘to provide a sense of
security’ in Britain. Many of those who were not currently employed and also private
tenants described ‘other’ reasons.
Overall, the level or existence of financial assets correlate that of housing assets. In
both societies, the women who had higher income and better employment status(managerial, full-time employees) were more likely to own the financial assets andhigher level of them. Those who owned were likely to own all areas of assets. There－ 31 －

were few significant cross-national differences in financial assets of the women: First,
the advantage of Japanese housewives in the pension scheme (those married women
without income could expect much better public pensions compared with theirworking / single counterparts); and second, by inheriting not only housing assets but
also financial assets from late husband, the widows held the significantly high rates oflife assurance (and thus the most affluent group).

－ 32 －