Retail savings with Japan Post have dipped below Yen 190 trillion for the first time in twelve years, according to a report in the Nikkei newspaper. In February 2000, postal savings were worth over Yen 260 trillion, as retail savers fled troubled commercial banks. They have fallen steadily since.
Meanwhile, the Investment Trust Association of Japan has reported that the net amount invested in equities at the end of December last year was Yen 55.6 trillion, up Yen 2.9 trillion from the previous month, resulting in a record high for the seventh month in a row. According to the Bank of Japan, the value of JGBs held by the household sector amounted to Yen 30 trillion at end-September 2006, the balance having increased by approximately Yen 10 trillion since March 2005.
“Individual investors have been shifting their monies from postal savings to other financial products such as stock investment trusts and JGBs,” says a spokesman for Mizuho Corporate Bank in Tokyo.