Japan’s Generation Z is uneasy about financial plans for retirement
RENOSY, the online real estate service platform provided by GA technologies, recently published research about the level of interest on financial investment plans for retirement, in the context of the revised “Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA)” retirements savings scheme. The online survey covered Generation Z (Age 20 ~ 22), Millennials (Age 27~ 35), and specifically RENOSY service users (Age 27~ 35).
The key findings are as follows:
Almost 50% of both Generation Z & Millennials showed their anxiety towards financial plans for retirement
Both generations answered that they are unsure about their own financial plans about retirement (44.4% of Generation Z, 48.1% of Millennials), while 29.1% of RENOSY users are somewhat optimistic about it.
As far as personal investment experience is concerned, 37.3% of RENOSY users (real estate investors) began their investment during the first 3 years after graduating from college. Other Millennials typically started their first investment not until the 4th year to the 8th year after graduation, so there is an obvious difference even within the same generation. As a result, how early a person starts a financial plan affects their viewpoints towards whether they are prepared for their retirements.
Different levels of investment knowledge
Among Millennials who have investment experience and those who do not, there is a noted difference in the level of investment knowledge. Those who have not invested before are somewhat familiar with the following savings vehicles:
- Nippon Individual Savings Account (58.9%),
- Domestic Stocks (54.3%), and
- Foreign Stocks (42.0%).
For RENOSY users (experienced investors), the answers are as follows:
- Real Estate (91.8%),
- Domestic Stocks (89.1%), and
- Mutual Funds (85.5%).
70% of Japanese Generation Z are interested in or have investment experience
The pie chart in the title shows the level of interest in investment among Japanese young people. 21.1% of them replied that they are doing some kind of investment for now while 9.4% replied that they did before but not at this point for some reason. 37.4% showed they are interested in it regardless of having no experience. Overall, almost 70% of the Japanese young people (Generation Z) said that they are indeed interested in investment regardless of actual experience. Only 32% responded with no experience nor interest in it.
Content streaming platforms are the primary tool for investment education
The primary media tools for obtaining investment information are as follows among Generation Z:
- YouTube (26.7％),
- Instagram (19.3％), and
- TV (13.3％.
This contrasts somewhat with the survey results for Millennials:
- TV (23.9％),
- YouTube (20.4％), and
- Twitter (14.4％).
On the other hand, Millennials who have actual investment experience gave a slightly different answers:
- YouTube (30.9%),
- Twitter (14.5%), and
- TV (12.7％).
Therefore, YouTube and TV, media with images or short video contents, are popular among all young Japanese regardless of experience. While more generic contents about the newest trends and YouTubers talking about a specific field other than investment are popular regardless of investment experience, those with investment experience tend to gather more specific information on how to diversify the risks and tend to search for concrete examples for building up their investment.
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