Read in JapanToday about pocket money of salary men, due to the economic conditions, the pocket money level falls to same level as 30 years ago. Pocket money in Japanese is kozukai 小遣い, normally for married couple, the husband will hand over all of his salary to the wife, and the wife will give the husband pocket money after she do all the calculations on all the household expenses, kids, schools, loans, etc. So, the salary men's kozukai is a useful economic barometer, Shinsei Bank have been doing the survey from 1979. So, I googled for more titbits on this interesting topic, another article from JapanToday too, the most interesting part was the comments. So funny!
A comment from Shoganakunai: Unfortunately like many stories on Japan, this fails to take into account the shadow economy. Although most salarymen may receive a pitiful kozukai- it is not their only source of income. A large % of salarymen hold multiple bank accounts and arrange with their HR department to split a small percentage off into the secondary account which acts as their entertainment cash account. Ask your Nihonjin male colleagues if they are aware of this and you'll see. The wives in these cases never get to see the original gross salary. I remember when my Japanese boss discovered only on pay-day that the company was henceforth sending his monthly payslip directly home by mail instead of delivered to his desk. His horror was only matched by how fast he went home to intercept the payslip... But lest you think Japanese salarymen are all bad and deceptive, it is a common practice for wives to spin off a small % themselves into their own private account. Originally to protect themselves in case of a divorce, its more often used to fuel those handbag expenses.... again ask your female SAHM friends and see if they'll confess after a couple of drinks. Neither get reported in the general media though...
