Therefore, they had little room to raise the wages of their workers, and the  Economic Planning Agency, Economic Survey of Japan (Economic White Paper), July 1999 (available only in Japanese). 3  6  workers in turn hardly benefited from the growth of overseas economies.
Under these circumstances, households did not have hopes for a sustained increase in wages based on the lifetime employment practice and seniority-based wages, which created anxiety for the future. To prepare for uncertainty, I think that households were increasingly inclined to hold back on risky asset investment and instead hoard cash and deposits.