Relatable SocietyParenting

Japanese Elementary Schooler Asked for ¥500 a Month — Her Parents Had Been Thinking ¥3,000

A parent's allowance chat with their daughter turned into a nationwide conversation about money, childhood, and changing spending habits.

· 8 min · Togetter

What's going on

Giving children a regular monthly allowance is a common practice in Japan and is widely seen as an early lesson in money management. While there's no hard standard, a rough rule of thumb often cited is "¥100 per grade level per month" — meaning a 5th grader might receive ¥500. In practice, amounts vary widely by family, and what counts as "covered by allowance" versus "handled by parents" (school supplies, outings, clothing) differs just as much.

With Japan's recent inflation pushing the price of manga, snacks, and stationery noticeably higher, many parents are rethinking what a fair allowance looks like today. One parent posted about sitting down with their spouse to work this out before talking to their elementary-school-age daughter — and landed on roughly ¥3,000 a month as a reasonable starting point, factoring in how much books and manga cost these days.

Then they asked the daughter. She said ¥500 would be fine. The post set off a wide discussion about allowance amounts, generational differences in spending habits, and whether today's kids are simply less materialistic — or just very good at not asking.

Comments

Our daughter finally asked for an allowance, so my husband and I sat down to figure out an amount. “How about ¥3,000 a month?” “Books and manga have been getting pricier lately, right?” 😂 When we were kids, most of our allowance went to books and manga anyway, with the occasional outing for stationery or snacks. We figured ¥3,000 should cover it in today’s prices. So we told her—
“Wait, that’s way too much! ¥500 a month is fine! I want to save up for some clothes.” 😂 Mom will buy you clothes, honey… at ¥500 a month, that outfit is going to take a few years, kiddo lol
Turns out books weren’t even on her list lol. Apparently even a well-off friend of hers only gets ¥500 a month. We both want her to have enough when she’s out with friends, so we wanted to match whatever the other kids have… you hear that kids today spend a lot, right? So we were thinking ¥3,000 — but wait, is that too much? We were kind of feeling around in the dark.
When she said ¥500, my first thought was — wait, is that less than I expected? Is that actually normal? Well, she IS in elementary school… 😂 Between the price hikes lately and genuinely not knowing what kids need these days, it’s so hard to figure out the right amount. I’ve always bought her things when she asked, but I guess she wants to be the one picking stuff out when she’s hanging with friends.
She really doesn’t ask for things much anyway. And our younger daughter is a complete mystery.
Parent of a 5th grader here. We did ¥1,000 through 2nd grade, then ¥1,500 from 3rd. The allowance is mostly saved for outings with friends, but she said she wanted to buy Ribon (Ribon is a long-running monthly manga magazine aimed at girls, published since 1955) every month, so we added ¥500 for that. Stickers, snacks, stationery — it all costs more now. We cover most of that separately.
Here’s our system: Nothing before elementary school — just buy what’s needed. Elementary: grade × ¥500 per month. Middle school starts at “grade 7” and counts up from there. High school starts at “grade 10,” with allowance continuing until the end of first semester only. After that — get a part-time job and manage your own money.
When I was a kid, I got ¥1,000 in upper elementary. For trips to the mall (Aeon is a large Japanese retail chain with hundreds of shopping centers across the country) — parents would drive us — they’d hand money as needed, but we rarely went. The ¥3,000 range you’re thinking of was actually my middle school allowance. How about giving your daughter the ¥500 she asked for, then offering the remaining ¥2,500 separately for outings and clothes? There’s something fun about picking things out yourself!
My son just started middle school. I’ve been giving him an allowance since 4th grade: ¥3,000 in 4th, ¥4,000 in 5th, ¥5,000 in 6th, and ¥6,000 now in middle school. Double payment in bonus months too. Prices are just so different from thirty-odd years ago — and I grew up in a poor household where I went without — so I make sure my son has money.
For me it was ¥1,000 in elementary, ¥3,000 in middle school, ¥5,000 in high school. Things like stationery — stuff I needed but didn’t personally want — were covered separately.
I’m currently in middle school and I get half my New Year’s money (Otoshidama: a Japanese tradition where adults give children cash in decorated envelopes at the start of each year — amounts typically range from ¥1,000 to tens of thousands of yen depending on the giver) plus ¥1,000 a month, so ¥3,000 honestly sounds plenty 🙌 But from where I’m standing, ¥3,000 feels like a lot — I actually worry about being a financial burden on my parents 😔
Our 1st grader earns their allowance through chores. Bath cleaning: ¥30 per time. Laundry folding: ¥1 per item. Washing dishes: ¥30 per time. Do it properly and you can clear ¥1,000 in a month.
¥1,000 isn’t enough for a 6th grader, and ¥500 is even less. Better to give the right amount from the start than keep bumping it up later. For reference: ¥1,000 for 1st–2nd grade, ¥2,000 for 3rd–4th, ¥3,000 for 5th–6th. Plus ¥50 per chore on top — do one chore a day and that’s an extra ¥1,500 a month.
We’re planning ¥500 until 5th grade, then ¥700 in 6th. Clothes and necessary stationery are covered, paperback books too — manga is on her. Extra cash comes from chores! We also do bonus payments for test scores and extracurricular event achievements 🤗
We’ve got a 6th grade daughter too, so the amount struggle is real 😅 Our system: she has a vocab test at her weekly English class, 30 points total. We promised ¥500 for scoring 20+ and another ¥500 for a perfect score — usually adds up to around ¥1,000 a month 😊 Lately she’s been hitting 30 twice out of every four classes 🤣
Kids around mine seem to be getting about ¥500 too. Ours hasn’t started a regular allowance yet — just stretching out the New Year’s money. When I was in elementary school, most kids got regular allowances and the amounts felt pretty substantial. Kids today just don’t seem to want as much stuff, honestly.
In my case, zero allowance all the way from elementary through high school. Mostly got by on New Year’s money — about ¥15,000–20,000 — stretched across the year, with extra handed out for events like summer festivals or school culture fair after-parties.
The parents are so grounded — no wonder the daughter turned out that way… Still, with prices going up the way they have, figuring out the right allowance amount is genuinely tricky now 🤔
Since she’s so sensible — you might want to suggest that clothes come from a separate seasonal budget (“we can do X yen per season”), and start picking things out together from now on. She’s clearly developing her own taste. Good opportunity to teach her what to look for beyond just design — how easy it is to wash, how to check the stitching, things like that.
We talk a lot about allowances and money values in our house too. Some kids in upper elementary are getting ¥10,000 a month. You see plenty of kids walking around with ¥10,000 notes when they go out. But we’ve never given our kid that much — we just tell them to live by our family’s own sense of what money is worth.

My take

Too much or too little — both come with their own problems, so there's really no easy answer. I remember quietly making do with the lunch money I was given.

Comments loosely translated for tone.

Source https://togetter.com/li/2687905