Household debt as a share of GDP in Japan 2012-2021

In 2021, household debt in Japan accounted for 68.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The share increased from 67.7 percent in the previous year.

 Household debt 

Total household financial liabilities rose to around 372.7 trillion Japanese yen in the first quarter of 2022, most of which comprised housing loans. A distribution of financial liabilities held by multi-person households revealed that loans taken out for the purchase of homes and land were the primary reason for an increase in the average amount of liabilities per household in recent years. The average amount of financial liabilities per multi-person household decreased proportionally with increasing age: household debt reached the highest levels among households with a household head aged below 40 years, while households headed by over 70-year-olds reported the lowest amount of outstanding debt.

 Regional disparities 

A closer look at the geographical distribution of household debt revealed large disparities across different regions in the country: at 6.4 million yen, financial liabilities per multi-person household were highest in the Kanto region, which is home to Japan’s capital Tokyo where a large proportion of the Japanese workforce is concentrated. At the same time, the average household debt in Hokkaido, the northern-most island in Japan, was 3.88 million yen.