Books and Web sites devoted to the art of economizing describe the savings per month from "recycling" leftovers by putting them in stews and tempura (2,600 yen), taking shorter showers (540 yen) and flushing toilets at low-intensity (720 yen).
That's the kind of thrift low-income households have been talking about. But raising taxes, as being debated by policymakers, will force higher-income households to start saving as well, potentially triggering a recession and paradoxically cause tax revenues to fall, economists say.
In fiscal 2005, a man earning a salary of 6 million yen to support a wife and two kids will pay 23,000 yen more in taxes and mandatory premiums than the current year, due to the end of spousal tax exemptions and increased premiums into unemployment insurance and the public pension plan.