Japan’s Household Income Rises Record 7.3 Pct in 2024

Tokyo, July 15 (Jiji Press)–The average income per household in Japan in 2024 rose a record 7.3 pct from the previous year to 5,752,000 yen, a welfare ministry survey showed Wednesday. The ministry believes that the growth was led by wage increases by companies. Meanwhile, the survey also showed that the proportion of households finding that their lives were difficult remained high, at 55.4 pct, although the figure fell by 3.5 percentage points from the previous year. The latest annual survey was a large-scale edition, held every three years. Conducted from June to July 2025, it received responses from 187,633 households on household composition and 16,921 households on income. The average income for elderly households, defined as those made up of people aged 65 or older, or those also including unmarried individuals under 18, rose by 213,000 yen from the previous year to a record 3,361,000 yen. The average income for households with children climbed by 368,000 yen to a record 8,573,000 yen. The share of households that felt their lives were “very difficult” came to 23.2 pct, while that of those that found their lives were “somewhat difficult” stood at 32.2 pct, meaning that a total of 55.4 pct of households surveyed were in “difficult” living conditions. The proportion of households under “difficult” living conditions reached 82.1 pct among single-mother families and totaled 61.5 pct among child-rearing households, likely reflecting the impact of rising food prices. The survey also found that single-person households made up a record 35.4 pct of the total. Households with children accounted for 16.7 pct, up 0.1 point. Of them, 50.1 pct had only one child, surpassing 50 pct for the first time. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]