greater financial health of Japanese households is due more to culture or to government policies, institutions, and other non … explained much better by non-cultural factors than by culture. …

by culture and social norms by examining their saving and bequest behavior. To summarize our main findings, we find that … the Japanese are not a saving-loving people and that their saving behavior is not governed by culture and social norms …, we argue that these findings do not necessarily mean that culture and social norms do not matter. …