Devising a Questionnaire for a Financial Literacy Survey of Japanese Undergraduate Students and the Survey Results

Abstract

The authors adapted the original Jump$tart college questionnaire to measure the financial literacy for Japanese college students. With this questionnaire, we conducted a financial literacy survey among Japanese students at national and local public universities in July 2015. The results are as follows: （1） Japanese college students had the extremely low rate of correct answers in questions relating to long-term life planning, （2）Male students’ financial literacy was significantly higher than female students’ one, （3） Students majoring in the natural sciences scored significantly higher than did students majoring in the humanities or social sciences, （4）The mean rate of correct answers for American college students was much higher than that for Japanese college students in questions relating to borrowing, credit information, and taxes, and （5） The American college students also showed excellence in most questions in the cognitive category of “judgement.” Thus, this article concludes that financial education for life planning and decision-making is required for Japanese young people before their graduating from high school.