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This Is What Elderly Millionaires Spend Their Cash on in Japan

P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Bloomberg

The president of Kyushu’s biggest railway had a problem: too few people were riding his trains. The population was getting older, and since retirees don’t commute to work, the trick was getting people to want something they didn’t necessarily need. One answer: ultra-luxury trains.

It was such a hit that two of Japan’s top rail companies copied it. In May East Japan Railway Co. debuted its version, a 10-carriage sleeper that whisks its 34 passengers around in absolute splendor. A modern re-imagining of the old Orient Express, it has walls and ceilings that look like a glass honeycomb, a lounge pianist and menus by Michelin-starred chefs. Despite ticket prices as high as $8,400 for a three-night trip, it’s fully booked through March.
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After seven recessions in two decades, it’s easy to forget Japan still has a lot of money. The country has more millionaires than anywhere outside the U.S. and, according to Bain & Company, its luxury market was the only one in the world that grew last year. European-made status symbols like Hermes handbags and Rolex watches are still splurges of choice, but now legions of Japanese retirees are spending on first-class travel.

“Japan is a terrific luxury market,” said Greg Schulze, an executive at online travel agent Expedia Inc. “And the travel market is just catching up.”
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The country is in vogue among overseas travelers, record numbers of whom are visiting. But people like Fujio Umemoto, an older Japanese man who owns a yacht with friends, are the main clients for high-end tourism.

After decades of saving and a retirement package, the well-tanned 67-year-old says he now has ample time and money to spend. He won’t say how much he received, but last year the average person retiring from a lifetime of work at the same firm got a one-time parting bonus worth $210,000, according to a Japan Business Federation survey.
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Japan’s economy doesn’t produce many of the super-rich — only six Japanese make Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 wealthiest people, compared with 164 Americans — but it is cranking out millions of millionaires. In fact, Japan has more people with liquid assets worth $1 million — 2.7 million of them — than Germany and China combined, according to the World Wealth Report from consulting firm Capgemini.

In a country with a shrinking population, the elderly and the wealthy are two overlapping demographics that are growing. A stock market rally helped swell the ranks of Japanese millionaires by 11 percent in 2015, the most recent year for which Capgemini has data.
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Perhaps nowhere is increased spending by older people more evident than in the cruise ship industry, where the number of Japanese passengers rose 12 percent last year to a record 248,000, according to the transport ministry. Shipping company Nippon Yusen K.K. says it’s most luxurious trip — a three-and-a-half month voyage around the world — almost sold out within the first day. The most expensive ticket costs about $230,000.

Demand is drawing overseas competitors. U.S.-based Princess Cruises will start offering voyages year-round from Japanese ports next April. Another operator, Genting Hong Kong dispatched one of its biggest ocean liners to Japan this month. Italy’s MSC Cruises will offer its first Japan cruise next year and is considering as many as four in 2019.
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Most people don’t think of bus travel as a luxury option, but Japanese businesses are inventing upscale versions of that, too. A few years ago, department store operator Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. started offering luxury sightseeing tours from the comfort of a specially designed coach made to approximate the feel of first-class air travel. The buses seat just 10 passengers spread out over a space that would normally fit 40 or more.
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-1x-1.jpg
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There are only ten seats inside Isetan Mitsukoshi Premium Cruiser luxury bus.

Twilight Express Mizukaze interior video
Twilight Express Mizukaze route video

Had no idea Japan was second place in millionaires.
 
S

Skinpop

Member
My former landlady in Japan, a super sweet 70-ish widow who is quite loaded go on these cruises every year.
 
H

HisImperialMajesty

Member
America needs more millionaires like in Japan and less fucking billionaires who control all the wealth. People who work hard deserve to get rich, but there has to be some semblance of income equality and social mobility.
 
P

Poppy

Member
sheesh, the normal trains and shinkansen are already good enough to me, japanese public transit is a lot better than what i am used to in mass and NY
 
L

Laiza

Member
TheOMan said:
Am I reading that right? VAs get 600k USD a year?
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A-list VAs specifically. The ones that get pretty much any gig they want because their name is so well-recognized.

Regular VAs have to grab whatever scraps they can get, and their income varies wildly accordingly.
 
M

Marmaladefire

Member
TheOMan said:
Am I reading that right? VAs get 600k USD a year?
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They often (and almost always in the case of A-list) have to pull double duty as idols with vocal songs and albums, photobooks, fan meets, constant promotion, etc, so they're earning their keep. Unknown VAs make nothing just like everyone else.
 
B

bomma_man

Member
HisImperialMajesty said:
America needs more millionaires like in Japan and less fucking billionaires who control all the wealth. People who work hard deserve to get rich, but there has to be some semblance of income equality and social mobility.
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iirc of the developed world Japan also has the highest rate of poverty aside from the US. But otherwise I agree.
 
M

Marmaladefire

Member
Kusagari said:
So basically become a VA/idol.
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If you can handle the terrifying fans showing up to meet and greets with knives, barely legal work horse contracts that you might not ever be able to get out of, and not being allowed to be seen with anyone of the opposite gender publicly because your fanbase makes r/incel look pro-feminist, I hear it's a good gig.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Expensive luxury travel is a great way to spend your money. Experience the world. In comfort. I approve.
 
P

Poppy

Member
Marmaladefire said:
If you can handle the terrifying fans showing up to meet and greets with knives, barely legal work horse contracts that you might not ever be able to get out of, and not being allowed to be seen with anyone of the opposite gender publicly because your fanbase makes r/incel look pro-feminist, I hear it's a good gig.
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i wanna live that perfect blue life
 
Oppo

Oppo

Member
The country has more millionaires than anywhere outside the U.S. and, according to Bain & Company, its luxury market was the only one in the world that grew last year.
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that is... really surprising.

I'd have guessed Saudi Arabia or UAE or something
 
F

foxuzamaki

Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
PeakPointMatrix said:
Is this yearly?! As in animators get paid barely $10,000 in cash a year?!?
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Iirc they get paid like some amount of cents for every frame aka every picture they draw, which means they going to be drawing a lot for small movements for the charscters
 
T

tokkun

Member
Japan has more people with liquid assets worth $1 million — 2.7 million of them — than Germany and China combined
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I can explain this one.

The Japanese stock market has garbage returns, so people keep their savings in cash. In countries with healthy economies that money would be invested.

House prices are also fairly low, so they have less of their total assets tied up there.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
I read the thread title as Elderly Millenials.
 
G

gaugebozo

Member
I work with someone who one time had to entertain business guests from Japan. They purchased the most luxurious option they could for a train ride between Boston and New York. They were utterly disgusted. It was the equivalent of the budget option to them.
 
B

bman94

Member
Honestly it looks amazing. I would love to go on a 3 day trip on one of these things. It must be super relaxing.
 
M

Mr. Tone

Member
Loxley said:
How does Japan have more millionaires than China or the UAE? That's genuinely surprising.
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There's a difference between having a million dollars in assets and having a million dollars in liquid cash. This is talking about about the latter.
 
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