As reports of Japan's emergence from its lengthy recession abound, Japan Market Intelligence recently took to the streets of Tokyo to survey cash and banking habits.

Macro views of Japan's economy have become a media staple of late. However, at JMI we decided to look for a more micro view, gleaned straight from the wallets of 300 Japanese males and females...

We started this survey by asking respondents how much they were carrying in their wallets. On average the declared amount was 19,300 yen (US$165). This may be a surprisingly high figure for those who may be unfamiliar with Japan as being essentially a cash-based society. The average amount carried by males was 23,500 yen (US$201) and it was substantially less for females at 15,100 yen (US$129).

When asked to ponder just how much cash they would feel comfortable carrying, we learned that on average people would have no problem having up to 208,000 yen (1,770 USD) in their wallet. The average maximum amount for males is a startling 244,000 yen (over US$2,000!).

Amusingly, one of the main reasons given for not carrying large amounts of cash was that their wallets would become too thick to fit into jeans pockets. Such is life in this convenience driven, crime-free society!

At the opposite end scale of the scale, we then asked what was the minimum amount of cash the respondents one would feel comfortable to have on them. Males seem to feel the need to carry more cash - a minimum of 6,000 yen (US$ 52) on average - almost twice the amount of females.

These findings may seem to run counter to the general perception of Japan being a matriarchal society, where women control the purse strings and are responsible for daily living expenditures.

So why are Japanese males so cash-oriented? An analysis into the financial psyche of the male mind was beyond the scope of this survey, but the most likely reason would seem be that males need to stock their cash reserves at regular intervals. Compared with females, most males have less time to frequent ATMs during office hours, and this is compounded by the lack of 24-hour ATM service from banks.

So while males opt for cash, it was found that females have a much stronger preference for credit cards, across a range of measures including penetration of card ownership, average numbers of cards owned and usage frequency.

Finally, looking beyond methods of payment to the actual amounts of cash available to spend, on-average males declared levels of disposable income that were around 95% higher than those of females. Even more striking is the trend that males' disposable income increases with age, while for females it decreases, opening up an even bigger disposable income gender-gap among the so-called "silver" generation.

Please download this PDF file containing the full survey results:
JMI Cash Survey