Hesokuri And Okozukai

In Japan,traditionally, the housewife controls the family budget even if the husband is the sole breadwinner, and the husband is given a small allowance to spend as he desires.This allowance is called Okozukai. In some cases, particularly bright women will have the Okozukai structured as a percentage of the household revenue, encouraging the man to work harder.The husband spends his Okozukai on himself, often on after-hours drinking with colleagues.

The wife, in contrast, often seeks to build secret reserves of cash.These secret reserves are known as Hesokuri from hesokuri-gane, meaning ‘money hidden in the navel.In the popular imagination it has two very different purposes. On the more noble side it is money that wives — keepers of the purse — maintain for emergencies or old age.On the less noble side it is a fund they maintain for themselves, to go out for lunch with their girlfriends or to buy something for themselves since stereotypically Japanese husbands rarely purchase gifts for their wives. In most cases, Hesokuri is built over the course of years from small savings put aside and interest compounded on the principal.Mostly this fund is accumulated after the wedding, but a few women confess to having saved money on their own before getting married and not telling their husbands about it.Most women believe the men know nothing about these liquid reserves.Women whose husbands have a tendency to get into debt or are abusive see Hesokuri as providing an option of a life away from their spouse. Read more of this post