[Explainer] 28.26 Million NISA Accounts, but Only About 60% Are Actually Investing? A Chart Look at Active Rates by Age

Hey everyone, Hirokichi here.

When people see the headline “NISA accounts have topped 28 million,” it feels like the program is spreading smoothly. But whether everyone who opened an account is actually investing month after month is a different story. Today, let’s look at the gap between the number of accounts opened and the number of people actually investing — and break down the active-use rate by age, with a table and charts.

NISA accounts have grown to 28.26 million — but “opened” doesn’t mean “investing”

According to a survey the Financial Services Agency (FSA) released in February 2026, there were about 28.26 million NISA accounts at the end of December 2025, with cumulative purchases of about 71 trillion yen. The government’s target is 34 million accounts and 56 trillion yen in purchases by the end of 2027 — and purchases have already blown past the goal, while the account count is running ahead of schedule at about 83% of target.

So far, so good. But the key point is that “opening an account” is not the same as “investing.” Per an analysis by the Nikkei, the share of accounts with at least one purchase during 2024 (the active-use rate) was 62.0% overall. In other words, about 40% of account holders didn’t make a single purchase that year. There are quite a few accounts that were opened but aren’t really moving.

“Dormant accounts” swing between ~20% and ~40% depending on the definition

Here’s what to watch out for: what “dormant account” actually means. This number changes a lot depending on how you define it.

What this chart shows is that the same “unused account” can nearly double depending on how you look at it. Measured as “accounts with no purchase during the year,” 2024 comes out at about 38% — but that also counts people who bought last year and simply didn’t buy this year. On the other hand, the truly dormant kind — “never invested since opening, with a zero balance” — is around 20%, according to Daiwa Asset Management’s “New NISA White Paper 2026,” which pulls together several surveys. Hearing “40% are dormant” on the news is startling, but the real picture is closer to about 1 in 5. Personally, I think this gap between 38% and 20% is exactly the kind of thing worth understanding properly.

By age, the active rate peaks at 70.7% for people in their 30s and drops to 24.7% for 80s+

Next, let’s look at whether accounts are actually being used, broken down by age. This is where the difference stands out the most.

What this chart tells us is a clear trend: working-age people use their accounts actively, while older groups move much less. In 2024 the active rate was highest for people in their 30s at 70.7%, followed by 40s at 68.8% and 50s at 66.9%. By contrast, people in their 70s came in at 48.2%, and those 80 and older at just 24.7% (down 4.0 points from the prior year). I think it’s a positive sign that usage is strong among people in their 30s to 50s, the group that needs to build assets the most.

By account count, 50s and 40s lead — and younger generations are growing

Beyond “what share is active,” it’s worth checking which age groups actually hold accounts. Here are the account counts as of the end of June 2025, alongside the active rates above.

The most accounts are held by people in their 50s at 5.25 million, followed by 40s at 5.16 million and 30s at 4.72 million. In terms of growth, over the six months from the end of December 2024 the fastest-growing group was teens (+28.5%), then people in their 20s (+6.1%). The base is small, but the numbers do show younger people starting to invest with NISA as their entry point.

So why do people open a NISA account and then not invest?

So why do some people open an account but never invest? In the Japan Securities Dealers Association’s “National Survey on Securities Investment (2024),” the top reasons for not investing through a NISA account were “I don’t really understand how to invest” (28.8%), “I’m waiting to time the market” (19.0%), and “I couldn’t set aside money to invest” (18.2%). And in a separate 2022 survey, the most common answer was “I never intended to buy anything — I opened it because a financial institution recommended it” (28.7%).

Looking at this, the three big ones are “I don’t know how,” “I don’t have spare money,” and “I was basically talked into opening it.” My impression is that people stumble less on the program itself and more on how to take that first step.

My take: opening an account isn’t the finish line

What I take away from this data is three things: (1) don’t be satisfied just by opening an account, (2) it doesn’t have to be a big amount — put even a small sum to work each month, and (3) don’t fixate too much on your age group’s “average.” There’s no need to panic just because your generation has a high active rate, and being in a lower-rate group doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. What matters is not treating account opening as the goal, but continuing to invest steadily from there.

NISA is really just a “tax-free box for investing,” and simply preparing the box won’t grow your assets. If your deposits or auto-invest settings have stalled, I think starting to move even a small amount is the surest shortcut to a better future self.

For a sense of how the system and actual investing play out, feel free to check my own monthly records. You’ll find them all in my complete total-assets archive here.

日本語版はこちら → NISA口座2,826万でも「投資している人」は約6割？年代別の稼働率を図解でチェック（日本語版）

* This article is for informational purposes only and does not recommend any specific investment. Please make investment decisions at your own responsibility.

Let’s keep at it, slow and steady. See you next time!

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