Hey everyone, Hirokichi here.
Summer bonus season is back again, and I’m sure plenty of you are excited thinking about what to do with the extra cash this year. But when you look at the latest survey data, it turns out that how Japanese people actually spend their bonuses hasn’t changed much at all in years. In this post I want to dig into the newest 2026 bonus spending ranking, how the share of people putting bonus money into investing has shifted over time, and how Japan compares with the U.S. — to paint a realistic picture of what I’d call “savings-first Japan.”
■ Japan’s 2026 summer bonus ranking: “Savings” takes No. 1 for the 13th year running
Let’s start with the newest numbers. According to a June 2026 survey by the All About editorial team (n=500), the single most common answer for “where most of the bonus money goes” was savings/deposits at 36.2%. Travel and leisure came in second at 12.6%, investing came in third at 12.2% — just 0.4 points behind — followed by loan repayment at 10.6% and topping up daily living expenses at 9.4%.
According to Ponta Research, which has tracked bonus spending every year since 2014, “savings/deposits” has now held the No. 1 spot for 13 years straight. Looking at multiple-choice answers (where people could pick more than one use), roughly 7 in 10 respondents said they put at least some of their bonus into savings (69.2% in the All About survey). Even though travel and investing get plenty of buzz, when it comes to actual behavior, “save it first” is still what the majority of people in Japan do in 2026.
■ Investing is still stuck at 3rd place around 12% — but it’s climbing steadily by age group
That said, something quietly meaningful is happening on the investing side. Data from a continuous survey by the job-hunting service doda, covering 15,000 respondents each year from 2023 through 2025, shows the share of people putting their bonus toward “financial products (investing/asset management)” has risen every year, across every age group.
Among people in their 30s, the figure climbed from 18.0% in 2023 to 22.1% in 2025. For people in their 40s it went from 15.9% to 18.2%, for those in their 50s from 12.3% to 15.5%, and even for those in their 20s it moved from 11.5% to 12.9%. The jump was biggest among people in their 30s, which likely reflects the launch of Japan’s new NISA (Nippon Individual Savings Account — a tax-free investment scheme) in 2024.
A separate survey by Mitsui & Co. Digital Asset Management (June 2026, n=1,463), aimed at people who already use an investing platform, found that “investing” was the top answer (60.8%) for “spending categories that have grown the most over the past five years” — about three times the 21.1% who said the same about savings. By generation, 79.7% of people in their 30s and 71.1% of those in their 40s said their investing had increased. This suggests the shift from “saving” to “investing” is being led by people in their prime working years. That said, this particular survey only covers people already registered with an investment platform, so the numbers likely skew more investing-friendly than the general population.
■ The gap between Japan and the U.S. in bonus-bound investing is huge
Looking at these numbers, it might seem like interest in investing is steadily rising in Japan too. But compared with the U.S., the gap is still enormous.
According to the Bank of Japan’s Flow of Funds statistics (as of the end of September 2025), cash and deposits make up 49.1% of Japanese households’ financial assets — roughly half — while stocks and mutual funds combined account for only 20.6%. In the U.S., by contrast, cash and deposits make up only around 10% of household financial assets, while stocks and mutual funds account for roughly half.
Looking at individual stock ownership tells a similar story: a 2025 Gallup poll found that 62% of Americans reported owning stock in some form, including shares held directly or through a 401(k) or IRA (a retirement account somewhat similar to Japan’s iDeCo). Given that investing is still chosen as the “top” use of a bonus by only around 12% of people in Japan, it’s clear there’s a substantial gap between Japan and the U.S. in how household money flows toward investing.
■ What I think: a bonus is basically a mirror of the household balance sheet
Looking at these bonus rankings, what strikes me is that a bonus is really a small mirror of someone’s overall approach to money. In Japan, “save it when you get it” is still the default mindset for a lot of people, and investing tends to be treated as something you do only if you have money to spare. To be clear, I’m not saying saving is a bad thing — having an emergency fund is genuinely important. But holding onto cash alone, while prices keep rising, carries its own risk: your purchasing power quietly erodes over time.
Looking ahead, there are three things I’ll be watching. (1) How much further the new NISA system, launched in 2024, takes root, and how much that lifts the share of bonuses going into investing. (2) How far the shift “from savings to investing” spreads among people in their 30s and 40s. (3) Whether the gap between Japan and the U.S. in household financial asset composition starts to narrow at all. I plan to keep tracking these three points in next year’s bonus surveys.
If you haven’t decided what to do with this year’s bonus yet, even a rough rule like “set aside some percentage for an emergency fund first, then put part of the rest into investing” can make a real difference in how you actually act. Let’s keep at it, slow and steady. See you next time!
* This article is for informational purposes only and does not recommend any specific investment. Please make investment decisions at your own responsibility.
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