Global Financial Literacy – Among Developed Nations, Japan Ranks Low, Just Slightly Higher than Italy

On the link below, you can download S&P’s report comparing global financial literacy in various countries.  (See definition below.) S&P asked four simple questions about things like how interest works and ranked countries based on the percent of correct responses.  At 41%, Japan has a relatively low score among developed nations, which ranks it just above Italy in most respects.

What is also interesting in the results is things like: a) how financial literacy tracks with GDP per capital, b) how big the gender gap is, almost in all countries; and c) this gap exists even for unmarried women, which shows that it is not only because they are depending too much on husbands.  Scandinavian countries score high in general.

With regard to Japan, the results are surprising in a way, but also not. Related to this (I believe), in BDTI’s Japanese director training we devote almost 3 hours in a day-long program to reading financial statements, but no time to that topic in the English program.

You can download the report here:
https://www.mhfi.com/corpo…/global-financial-literacy-survey – lots of food for thought.

( What is Financial Literacy?
Financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works in the world: how someone manages to earn or make it, how that person manages it, how he/she invests it, or how that person donates it to help others.)

The Board Director Training Institute (BDTI) is a "public interest" nonprofit in Japan dedicated to training about directorship, corporate governance, and related management techniques. It is certified by the Japanese government to conduct these activities as a regulated nonprofit. Read a summary about BDTI here, and see a menu of its services for both corporations and investors here.

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