A recent story reported by all the major media highlights a peculiar aspect of current household economics in Japan. In March, a home in Fukuoka City was broken into and ¥160 million in cash was stolen. One of the people who lived there, a 26-year-old woman, reported the robbery to the police, who have yet to catch the thief.

During their investigation the police wondered why the woman had such a huge amount of cash in her home. The usual reason is that there is almost no place to park that money these days. With bank interest rates remaining at zero indefinitely, more and more families just sock their money away in the mattress (or, in the Japanese idiom, the wardrobe). Mutual funds and other investment opportunities are available in Japan, but the average Japanese person tends to be averse to anything with risk attached.

In the case of the burgled party, the reasons were a little different. Investigators eventually learned that the ¥160 million was part of a ¥1.45 billion inheritance that the woman and her two older siblings received from their mother, who died in 2008 at the age of 64. The inheritance was made up of both cash and assets, including real estate, and had they properly reported it the three would have been liable for ¥544 million in inheritance taxes. As it stands now they will have to pay more, what with fines and penalties added on. In their case it's even worse since they may be paying tax on ¥160 million they no longer have.