[Explainer] Is X Full of Millionaire Investors? Checking the Real Numbers on Japanese Investors

Hey everyone, Hirokichi here.

Today I want to switch things up a bit and look at the gap between the investor image you see on X (formerly Twitter) and the real state of investing among Japanese people.

Scroll through the timeline and you’ll see plenty of posts from people claiming assets over 100 million yen (“okurihito,” or “hundred-million-yen achievers”) or unrealized gains in the tens of millions of yen. I’ll admit I’ve felt a pang of anxiety myself, thinking “is everyone really growing their money this fast?” But when you actually look at the statistics, the picture is quite different. Today I want to visualize that gap between “the world you see on X” and “the real Japan,” using real numbers.

On X, it looks like everyone is a millionaire investor

On X, posts reporting assets over 100 million yen, or big profits made in a short period, tend to get a lot of attention. These posts collect likes and reposts easily, so their presence on the timeline ends up looking much bigger than the actual number of people behind them.

This is likely related to “survivorship bias” (the phenomenon where only the voices of people who succeeded stand out, while the voices of people who failed or who are quietly building up their investments little by little get buried). In fact, columns from securities firms have pointed out that investment bragging on social media tends to include exaggeration and bias (see: Matsui Securities, “What Is Survivorship Bias in Mutual Funds?”). There’s also been a rise in investment scams using “FIRE” and “okurihito” as selling points, and Japan’s National Consumer Affairs Center has issued warnings about this. Behind the loudest voices, I think we need to remember that the overwhelming majority of people are either quietly building up small, steady investments, or not investing at all.

Only about 20% of Japanese people actually invest

So how many people in Japan actually invest? According to the Japan Securities Dealers Association’s “Survey on Individual Investors’ Attitudes Toward Securities Investment” (fiscal 2024), an estimated 24.95 million people hold securities, which comes to 20.2% (population percentage) of Japan’s total population. In other words, 4 out of 5 Japanese people are not investing in securities at all (source: Japan Securities Dealers Association, “Survey on Individual Investors’ Attitudes Toward Securities Investment”).

Even compared with other major countries, Japan’s investment participation rate is low.

As this chart shows, 55% of the US population invests in stocks, compared to only around 20% in Japan. That’s also lower than the UK (33%) and Sweden (22%), though higher than Germany and France (14-15%). Either way, Japan is still far from a society where “everyone invests” is the norm. It’s easy to miss this just by scrolling through X, but the fact is that people who actually invest are still a minority in Japan.

Even after opening an NISA account, 1 in 3 people leave it untouched

You might be thinking, “but didn’t things change once the new NISA (Japan’s tax-free investment account) started?” It’s true that the number of NISA accounts has been increasing. According to Japan’s Financial Services Agency, the number of NISA accounts reached 28.26 million as of the end of December 2025, with cumulative purchases totaling 71 trillion yen (source: Financial Services Agency, “NISA Usage Status”).

But opening an account and actually keeping it going are two different things.

Based on the FSA’s figures, roughly 67% of NISA accounts have actually made purchases (“active accounts”), while the remaining 33%, or about 1 in 3 accounts, appear to be “dormant accounts” where people opened an account but never bought anything. Even though the tax-free system is available to them, a fairly large share of people have simply left it sitting untouched. I publish my own NISA investment results every month, and honestly, it reminds me that just keeping something going is often the real challenge.

The “over 100 million yen” crowd makes up just 3% of Japanese households

The “100 million yen in assets” figure you see on X is actually a fairly special category when you look at Japan as a whole. According to estimates by Nomura Research Institute (as of 2023), households with over 100 million yen in net financial assets (“wealthy” and “super-wealthy” households combined) number about 1.653 million, or just 2.97% of all households in Japan (source: Nomura Research Institute news release).

At the same time, a certain number of households hold no financial assets at all. According to the Central Council for Financial Services Information’s (J-FLEC) “Public Opinion Survey on Household Financial Behavior 2025,” the share of households with no financial assets is 21.6% for two-or-more-person households and 33.2% for single-person households (source: J-FLEC, “Public Opinion Survey on Household Financial Behavior 2025”). In other words, while there are “okurihito” out there, roughly the same share of households can’t even manage to save money at all — it looks like a fairly polarized society.

Why does this gap exist?

Putting these numbers together, three things stand out.

(1) Platforms like X are structurally set up so that posts from people who succeeded or made big money are the ones that get seen.

(2) Only about 20% of Japanese people actually invest, and even among those who open an NISA account, 1 in 3 don’t keep it going.

(3) Households with over 100 million yen make up less than 3% of the total — a different world for most people.

Personally, I think what matters is separating “the world you see on X” from “your own reality.” There’s no need to compare yourself to the okurihito on your timeline and feel anxious, and there’s no need to feel like you’re being left behind either. As the statistics show, if you’re quietly continuing to invest at all, you’re already on the minority side of the numbers.

Conclusion: don’t rush, don’t compare, just keep going

Writing this reminded me not to get swept up in the “everyone’s making money” atmosphere on X, and instead to keep investing at my own pace. I’ll keep steadily continuing my own investments going forward too.

日本語版はこちら → 日本語版はこちらから読めます

* 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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