Since publication of a 1998 book, The Benefits of a Frugal Life, similar books, Web sites, and setsuyaku clubs have burgeoned, teaching people how to make a virtue of doing without. However admirable, all this frugality is a major drag on the Japanese economy. After 10 years of economic stagnation and a weak revival last year, the country seems headed for another disastrous round of falling prices and failing banks and businesses. Thrift is good. Still, a few contrarians see a brighter picture.
Japan now accounts for about one third of all the world's new savings each year.
Years of big export surpluses have added to the country's cash mountain and its hoard of gold and foreign exchange. Japan ended fiscal 1999 with 84.7 trillion yen in net assets abroad. Even more-typical analysts, who focus on the plentiful bad news, spot silver linings. Many economists say Japan's problem is not a lack of wealth but of confidence. Osamu Miyake, who works for a food-importing company, earns no less than he did a few years ago, but he is certainly spending less.