The 15th of each month is a big day for 36-year-old Yoshihiro Nozawa: it is the day he gets paid.
Each month he hands his full salary to his wife, Masami.
She manages the household finances and gives him a fixed allowance of 30,000 yen ($381; £243).
That is all he can spend for the next 30 days despite being the family’s main earner.
“The last five days from the 10th of each month are usually the toughest,” says Yoshihiro.
To show the size of his allowance, the Nozawa family of four could spend 30,000 yen at Tokyo Disneyland in a single day.
Yoshihiro and Masami have two children: Rino, 6, and Ren, 8.
Masami says she started controlling the money when she became a housewife after their children were born.
“Suddenly, there was only one income and their educations and private lessons cost a lot,” she says.
Under the thumb
Yoshihiro admits 30,000 yen does not stretch far in Tokyo, one of the world’s most expensive cities.
He says his wife makes him a packed lunch every morning, which helps him save.
He usually eats alone in a nearby park during his lunch break.
His main indulgence is cigarettes, which take up about one third of his monthly allowance.
“I think I may have to quit if the price goes up again,” he adds.
Yoshihiro’s situation is common.
A survey by research firm Softbrain Field found that 74% of Japanese household budgets are controlled by women.
This pattern is not limited to couples with young children.
47-year-old Taisaku Kubo has received 50,000 yen a month from his wife, Yuriko, for the past 15 years.
Every year he asks for more pocket money.
Yuriko prepares a presentation to explain why she cannot raise his allowance.
“She draws a pie chart of our household budget to explain why I cannot get more pocket money,” says Taisaku.
On her hand-drawn chart, his allowance is shown as 8.8% of the monthly budget.
“The biggest expenditures are home loan and taxes,” says Yuriko.
“We don’t have children so I want to make sure that we’ll have enough money after his retirement.”
Faced with that breakdown, Taisaku abandons his argument for a raise.
“I’ve given up my car, motorbike and many expensive hobbies,” he laughs.
Shrinking budget
Taisaku’s 50,000 yen monthly allowance actually sits above the national mean.
Research by Shinsei Bank, tracking the trend since 1979, shows the average monthly pocket money was 39,600 yen last year.
That compares with 76,000 yen in 1990, when people believed Japan’s economy stood at its peak.
The market high came the year after the country’s benchmark stock index, the Nikkei 225, reached a record of 38,916.
Share prices plummeted in the 1990s and have never neared that level again.
Many Japanese household budgets are tightly controlled by housewives
As corporate fortunes faded, so too did businessmen’s pocket money.
Men whose wives don’t pack lunches now try to limit their daily meal spending to one coin: 500 yen (about $6.50).
Prices vary by location and venue, but 500 yen often barely buys a bowl of noodles or a fast-food burger.
The amount men spend on nights out has also fallen to a new low.
On average, they spend only 2,860 yen per drinking night, nearly half what they spent three years earlier.
That budget barely covers a couple of half-litre bottles of Asahi, which cost about 700 yen each.
Double income
Why don’t men take back control of household finances?
“I don’t think many men hand over their entire salaries happily,” says career consultant Takao Maekawa of FeelWorks.
He says many men still feel obliged to earn for the family, even if they endure financial sacrifices.
Traditionally, Japan’s post-war growth rested on dedicated salarymen and stay-at-home mothers.
Masami says Yoshihiro tried to manage the budget once but stopped because it took too much time.
“He actually tried to handle the household budget once,” she says. “But he said it was too time consuming so returned the task back to me.”
Yoshihiro admits he understands how complex budgeting can be.
“I know how much I make and I now understand how difficult it is to allocate the money,” he says.
He remains skeptical a pay rise would increase his allowance.
“Even if I get a pay rise at work, I am not too hopeful that my pocket money will go up.”
More households now pursue a double income because they can no longer afford not to.
For the moment, Yoshihiro and Taisaku search out cheap bars where they can drink without exhausting their monthly allowances.