2026.03.1000:11:09UTC+00Japan Personal Spending Falls at Softer Pace

Household spending in Japan fell 1% year-on-year in January 2026, moderating from a 2.6% decline in December but diverging from market expectations of a 2.5% increase. Expenditure rebounded on food (up 1.5% vs down 2.4% in December) and miscellaneous items (up 2.3% vs down 5.3%), while growth accelerated for furniture and household utensils (13.5% vs 2.3%) and for culture and recreation (10.8% vs 3.6%).

Meanwhile, the pace of decline slowed for clothing and footwear (‑1.7% vs ‑8.9%), transportation and communication (‑1.0% vs ‑7.1%), and other consumption expenditures (‑5.9% vs ‑9.5%). In contrast, spending on housing continued to contract more sharply (‑12.3% vs ‑7.6%), education swung back into a steep decline (‑22.6% vs +14.1%), and growth in medical care expenditures decelerated (3.1% vs 5.3%).

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, personal spending fell 2.5%, following a downwardly revised 2.9% drop in December and again missing market forecasts, which had pointed to a 0.8% increase.