Life can be hard without money, that's why we need to save.

Japanese Desperapte Housewives

Compared to avarage American housewives, I think Japanese housewives do more house work. That's because for women, once you quit your job after you got married and have kids, it's not easy to find a decent job because of age descremination - ads for jobs clearly tells you up to how old you can apply for the position, so therefore, most Japanese women become housewives after marriage & kids.

Average annual income for men - $42,000.00 (average age 42 in 1998)
*Culculating at $1.- = 110yen

Unless you work for a big company with a good position, it's hard to get a good salary. The income gap between rich and poor is getting wider in Japan like America. Plus I talked to some of the people I know, -all in their thirties, male, around the same income range, which is mid $40,000 who lives around Tokyo- they all need to work until pretty late, they come back home average later than 10:00 PM. They work longer hours than most of the Americans I know, without over-time, and the commute takes around 1.5 hours by train and bus.

How do they survive?

There's a bunch of websites by Japanese housewives introducing how to reduce their monthly money usage, just like any other financial help information: Cook for yourself, don't waste electricity, compare companies for insurance... One thing I can say is, work hard, so that you'll reduce your outcome of the money. There's no golden and instant way to save money!