TOKYO – As the AI frenzy propels Japanese equities to a fourth year of gains, young investors who have ridden the boom are starting to flaunt their good fortune.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index has surged over 30 per cent so far in 2026, and many of the winners are first-time investors who piled into stocks with the help of the government’s revamped tax-free savings program. Now, Gen Z shoppers are spending their returns on luxury items like jewellery and sports cars, signalling a growing appetite for conspicuous consumption.
The shopping spree may be good news for the retail sector, but it also reveals a deepening societal divide. While the stock rally mints a cohort of nouveau riche, those with fewer assets are being left behind, creating a new generation of haves and have-nots and exposing the increasingly uneven nature of Japan’s economic revival.
“If you’re properly exposed to the market, anyone can get comfortably rich,” says Taisei Tateno, a 27-year-old entrepreneur who sold his animation business for several hundred million yen two years ago and invested many of the proceeds in stocks.
The market rally boosted his wealth, and he recently purchased a Porsche for around 20 million yen (S$159,000) – more than five times the average annual starting salary for a university graduate in Tokyo.
“Since launching my business at 19, I’d dreamed of being able to live lavishly,” said Tateno, who says he had a humble upbringing but always wanted to get rich, and looked to self-made billionaires like SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son for inspiration. “Now, I enjoy giving younger colleagues and friends rides in my Porsche, to show them that those dreams can come true.”
Tateno is among a group of asset-rich young people who have seen their disposable incomes expand as a result of burgeoning stock prices. Japanese households’ unrealised equity gains have ballooned by around 150 trillion yen in real terms over the past three years, according to analysts at SMBC Nikko Securities.
While older generations have mostly focused on re-investment and saving, young investors have been spending their new-found cash.
Thirty-five per cent of investors aged 20 to 29 said they have spent or plan to spend their gains on luxury purchases, according to an SMBC Nikko survey conducted in late May. That is by far the largest proportion of any age group, underscoring young people’s “proclivity to open the purse strings”, the analysts wrote.
Clothing, accessories, recreation and travel are among the most common spending areas for the asset-rich, the survey found.
Retailers are adapting to the influx of young customers. Tokyo-based jewellery maker Happiness and D launched a new brand, No., in 2024 and expanded its range in 2026 after noticing a rise in younger clientele. In contrast with the company’s more understated AbHeri brand, No. offers large pendant necklaces and chunky rings embellished with diamonds. Prices range from around 20,000 yen to more than 2 million yen.
“In my day, it would be out of the question for a young salaryman to wear something like a gold necklace to work, but nowadays it’s becoming increasingly common,” said Happiness and D president Satoshi Maehara, who is a former banker in his late 50s. “It’s clear that young people have more money to treat themselves, and are getting more comfortable with showing it.”
The luxury splurge is being amplified by social media, where overt displays of wealth are increasingly becoming social currency in an era of rising living costs.
“You could say that social media is now the biggest influence on young people,” said Keitaro Takada, who runs the social-media marketing company Resource Creation.
The 40-year-old regularly appears on TikTok and Instagram decked out in designer clothes to promote his brand and company to his 60,000 followers. During a June interview with Bloomberg in Tokyo, he wore Cartier jewellery, Jimmy Choo shoes and a pair of Yves Saint Laurent leather pants.
“Young people’s attitudes toward money, how they spend it and information about investing, both good and bad, come largely from social media,” said Takada, who provides employees with allowances for fashion and beauty expenses to ensure they look the part.
But for those lacking access to the asset boom – lower-paid workers who cannot afford to invest or do not have the financial know-how to do so – the rise in conspicuous consumption only highlights the growing disparity between themselves and their more affluent peers. Although wages are steadily rising in Japan for the first time in decades, inflation and higher borrowing costs mean those relying on salaries alone rarely feel better off.
“Economic polarisation is definitely getting worse,” said Katsuhide Takahashi, a wealth adviser and founder of Tokyo-based financial consulting firm Malibu Japan. “The rich are genuinely getting richer due to asset gains, but many young people’s lives still revolve around paying rent and eating convenience-store meals.”
This split was laid bare in a January survey by credit card firm JCB. While 38 per cent of people in their 20s said they have accelerated their luxury spending in the past two years, one in three said they prioritise saving as much as possible.
Inequality is becoming a society-wide challenge in Japan as climbing interest rates and inflation alter the nation’s economic landscape.
The gap is widening most quickly among Gen Z – the wealth difference between the top 20 per cent and bottom 20 per cent of under-30s has grown by around 13 million yen in the past 10 years, the biggest increase among any age group, according to a Nomura Securities analysis. A recent increase in job hopping among young professionals has exacerbated the income gap, the study found.
And even among the asset-rich, the luxury spending boom masks an underlying economic anxiety. For many young people, consumption has become more of a substitute for prosperity than evidence of it, as they seek ways to enjoy booming markets even as soaring housing costs and macroeconomic uncertainty leave them feeling far from secure.
“I thought that once I had a few hundred million yen, I’d feel rich. But in reality, I don’t feel that way at all,” said entrepreneur Tateno. Despite his sports car, he says he cannot afford decent property in Tokyo.
Apartment prices in central Tokyo have surged in the past few years, with the average price of a new condo jumping about 14 per cent in May to 106.6 million yen.
“The houses I would want to buy are way out of my budget,” said Tateno. “There are still so many things I want to do and purchase that I can’t afford. So I don’t see myself as wealthy.”
Tateno’s attitude speaks to the superficial nature of many young investors’ new-found wealth. While paper gains may be enabling more to splash out on fancy purchases, long-term investments like property or starting a family still seem out of reach for many.
“Extra spending money that past generations would have used to buy property or invest for the future is now being squandered on Louis Vuitton and fancy cars,” said wealth expert Takahashi. “It’s a contrast to the bubble era, when society as a whole felt like it was on the way up. Today’s mood is far less exuberant” as rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions cloud the outlook, he added.
“And of course,” Takahashi warned, “if the market ends up crashing and the gains unravel, these young people will be left in a very tough spot.” Bloomberg