A question for the economists out there: Whenever I read that the Japanese savings rate is higher than American savings rate, I always find myself wondering how the average Japanese person manages to save so much money, given that most everything here costs more than it does in the U.S., and that consumerism seems as healthy here as it does in the U.S.

So there must be something big I'm missing about Japanese people's microeconomic behavior -- or else Americans must really spend outrageously beyond their means.....? Please enlighten me.

(Tiana Norgren, Columbia U./Keio U.)