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Markets · November 10, 2026 · 2 min read

Japan household spending falls 6.8% in September for two-or-more-person households

By Econ Data Tools Editorial Team

Published November 10, 2026 • Updated November 10, 2026

The Statistics Bureau reports a tenth annual real decline and a 2.8% seasonally adjusted monthly fall. Workers’ household income rose, and category results do not support a claim that all discretionary spending fell.

Japan's Statistics Bureau reported on November 10, 2026 that September consumption expenditure for households with two or more people averaged 289,536 yen. Spending fell 6.8% from a year earlier in real terms and 4.5% in nominal terms. The real decline was the tenth consecutive annual decrease. These are results for the survey's two-or-more-person household population, not a direct measure of every household or of total national consumption. The seasonally adjusted real spending measure fell 2.8% from August. That monthly comparison answers a different question from the 6.8% annual decline. The seasonally adjusted index was 93.8, with 2025 equal to 100. The bureau notes that seasonal adjustment uses X-12-ARIMA and that past seasonally adjusted figures are revised when January results are released. Spending weakness differed across categories. Transport and communications fell 9.1% in real terms from a year earlier, education fell 23.5%, and culture and recreation fell 8.7%. Their contributions to the overall real spending change were negative 1.41, 0.94 and 0.88 percentage points respectively. Category growth rates and percentage-point contributions are distinct measures and should not be added together as though they were the same statistic. Food spending rose 0.2% in nominal terms but fell 2.5% after price adjustment, illustrating why yen outlays and real consumption can move differently. The report lists dining out among the positive contributors to the real spending change, alongside vegetables and seaweed and alcoholic drinks. That does not support a blanket claim that every discretionary spending category declined. Housing spending was unchanged in real terms. The income results cover a narrower group: workers' households with two or more people. Their average monthly income was 528,074 yen, up 3.4% nominally and 0.9% in real terms using the all-items CPI excluding imputed rent. Using the all-items CPI instead produces a 1.3% real increase. This household-income measure includes more than employee wages and should not be substituted for a separate national wage series. For that workers' household group, disposable income rose 1.7% in real terms while consumption expenditure fell 10.0% from a year earlier. Its spending result is not the same population measure as the headline 6.8% decline. The release documents spending and income patterns; it does not by itself establish why households changed their behavior, prove a particular inflation cause, or announce how the Bank of Japan will decide its next interest-rate move.

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