Last week, the research department of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance released the results of its annual summer vacation survey. For the second year in a row, projected spending for summer vacation dropped from the previous year's spending. On average, households say they plan to spend ¥82,974 this year, down from ¥84,848 last year. It is not the lowest amount on record, however. In 2008, households said they would spend ¥76,955, but that was the year after the subprime crisis and the Lehman Brothers "shock." The next year, spending recovered but has been declining ever since.

Yasuda hasn't analyzed these findings, so it's not entirely clear if the reason for the decline is lack of disposable income due to the ongoing recession or fear of spending any money because of an uncertain future. However, the amount of spending jumps considerably when children aren't involved. Households consisting only of couples said they would spend on average ¥100,191, which is much more than it was last year. A relatively large number of couples say they will be traveling overseas.

In any case, the majority of all respondents said they would stick close to home this summer, 62 percent, to be precise. It's the seventh year in a row that "staying at home" topped the list of answers to the question, "What do you plan to do?" Other answers (respondents can tick more than one) included "return to my home town" (39.4 percent), travel domestically (37.4 percent), and visit theme parks, public pools, camping sites, etc. Among the reasons given for staying at home this year, the most common was "to recover my strength," followed by "it costs too much to travel."