The pie charts compare the average household spending in Japan and Malaysia across five important categories in 2010.
Overall, it is clear that people in both Japan and Malaysia spent the largest proportion of their budget on three main categories, namely food, housing, and other goods and services. Moreover, the percentages for transport and health care in Japan were double those of Malaysia.
In Malaysian households, the greatest proportion of spending was on housing, which represented 34% of the total expenditure, while in Japan the figure for this category was only 21%. Japanese householders spent the largest amount of their income on other goods and services, at 29%. Meanwhile, the rate of spending on this category in Malaysia was slightly lower, at 26%. In terms of food, the percentages of expenditure for both nations were relatively similar, at 27% for Malaysia and 24% for Japan.
In both countries, the smallest proportion of spending was on health care. In Malaysia, this accounted for 3% of the total household expenses, while transport represented 10%. These figures were exactly doubled in Japan, at 6% and 20% respectively.