Japan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard

Opinion Japanese societyJapan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboardThe country has stored goods worth roughly the combined market cap of its three most globally known corporate namesLeo LewisAdd to myFTGet instant alerts for this topicManage your delivery channels hereRemove from myFT© María HerguetaJapan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard on x (opens in a new window)Japan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard on facebook (opens in a new window)Japan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard on linkedin (opens in a new window)Japan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Japan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard on x (opens in a new window)Japan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard on facebook (opens in a new window)Japan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard on linkedin (opens in a new window)Japan’s $580bn hidden asset? In the back of the cupboard on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Leo LewisPublishedDecember 18 2025Jump to comments sectionPrint this pageUnlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Japan, collectively, has amassed a quite stupendous amount of stuff over the years. Very nice stuff, much of it; gleaming with brand names and in pristine condition. At current second-hand market prices, says a new report, Japan’s “hidden asset” in terms of national reserves of things — defined as potentially resellable household objects that have lain unused for over a year — is worth around $580bn.The dust-gathering contents of Japan’s cupboards, attics and garages, by that estimate, are worth roughly the same as the combined market capitalisation of the country’s most globally known corporate names: Toyota, Sony and SoftBank. That’s an impressive stash, equivalent to roughly $4,600 for every person in Japan. Researchers prefer to call this stuff non-financial “lifestyle assets”: a portfolio not just of domestic items you don’t need and could in theory monetise, but items you pretend you need and are using but will almost certainly admit you aren’t using and do not need at some unspecified time in the future. There are some caveats around how the mammoth $580bn price tag was placed on the stuff mountain, about a third of which is “fashion goods” and a fifth “hobbies and leisure”. The joint research was conducted by a corporate think-tank, the NLI Research Institute, and Mercari, Japan’s largest online marketplace for the buying and selling of used goods. The platform’s pricing averages were used to extrapolate from a survey of 2,400 people aged 10-69. The fact that around 23 per cent of Japanese are aged over 70 cuts quite an important group of lifestyle asset hoarders out of the calculation, particularly since that generation were, by all accounts, voracious hoarders. Actuarial tables of life expectancy also suggest their stuff may come up for sale more rapidly than anyone else’s. Mercari, meanwhile, is already doing staggeringly brisk business, and will do even more if Japan, in its advancing age and declining sense of wealth, decides to flog off the national stuff reserves on a grand scale.However, the intriguing bit is not the $580bn figure itself, but the way in which it highlights the specific set of circumstances of Japan’s used goods market, and what the rest of the world might learn (and gain) as Japanese households begin a mass experiment in becoming more proactive asset managers of what’s at the back of the cupboard.The market, some argue, is now large enough to make that experiment viable. Over the past few years, Japan has become a uniquely attractive global magnet for buyers of second-hand goods — from Hermès bags, Rolexes and limited edition Nike Airs to Pokémon trading cards, vintage video games, golf clubs, fishing rods and rare Licca dolls. An increasingly powerful appeal for the tens of millions of visitors the country now draws annually is not just the traditional shopping, but the vibrant, over-the-counter trade in used items. These chattels have been assembled by a once wealthy nation, currently finding its household finances rather strained and looking for ways to cash in on the purchases made in more prosperous times.Several factors have played a key role in this explosion — which has strong echoes of the way in which global private equity firms have grown increasingly obsessed with the idea of buying second hand from the undervalued depths of corporate Japan. The first is that Japan, in the main, is pretty careful with its stuff: people keep things in good condition (usually with the boxes and the original sales certificates), and so the quality of what goes on sale is high and has retained its value. Second, Japan bought the real thing in the first place: the used goods that go on sale are reliably not counterfeit, which relieves some of the stress of dipping in. Third, and closely related, is that Japan was always a huge and exciting market when the goods were new: quite apart from everything it produced itself, international brands have been selling their top-end or limited edition items in the country for decades. This means there is a lot of desirable stuff here.Towering over all of this, at least for the time being, has been the now prolonged weakness of the yen — a factor that makes the entire used goods market in Japan vastly more attractive in dollar, euro or renminbi terms. Wide expectations of an interest rate increase by the Bank of Japan later this week have failed to lift the yen from its trough, meaning that a barely touched Louis Vuitton bag, sold from one of Japan’s mass-market pawnshops, is still a spectacular bargain to a buyer from outside.leo.lewis@ft.comReuse this content (opens in new window) CommentsJump to comments sectionPromoted Content Follow the topics in this article Leo Lewis Add to myFT Japanese society Add to myFT Asia-Pacific economy Add to myFT Japanese business & finance Add to myFT Comments