Japan’s wealth managers face a problem for the ages

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Wealth management in Japan is a totally different story to anywhere else in the world. In most of Asia it is about rising youth, an emerging middle class and the technology required to serve them.

In Japan, it’s nothing like that. 

Daiwa president and chief executive Seiji Nakata shows Euromoney a chart revealing the segmentation of the wealth in Daiwa’s retail business by age. Today, the biggest five-year group in terms of wealth is aged between 70 and 74 – the Baby-boom generation. 

Twenty years from now, two of the biggest segments will be the over-85s (that same generation) and those aged 65 to 69, their children. 

“In 10 and 20 years, most of the assets will stay with people aged over 65 years old,” says Nakata.