Japan household assets hits another record on stock price rally

Household assets in Japan totaled 2,212 trillion yen at the end of June, hitting another record high on rising stock prices, Bank of Japan data showed Thursday.

They grew 4.6 percent from a year earlier and exceeded the previous record of 2,186 trillion yen marked in March. The government has been encouraging individual to save money with tax-exempt benefits from small investments in a program that was revamped in January.

Stock holdings grew 15.6 percent to a record 301 trillion yen, lifted by the rising trend in the stock market where the historic depreciation of the yen has boosted exporter shares.

The benchmark Nikkei rose about 18 percent during the first half of the year before hitting an all-time closing high of 42,224.02 on July 11.

Investment trusts jumped 27.1 percent to a record 128 trillion yen on the revamped tax exemption program for small investments, known as NISA and modeled on the Individual Savings Account in Britain.

Cash and deposits rose 0.8 percent to 1,127 trillion yen, still accounting for about half of overall household assets.

The ratio of Japanese government bonds held by the BOJ inched down to 53.21 percent from 53.25 percent at the end of March, with the balance standing at 564 trillion yen.

The central bank said in July that it would gradually decrease its massive bond holdings, accumulated through years of unorthodox monetary easing measures, as part of efforts to move toward normalizing monetary policy.