Key Points
ใปSinger GACKT’s remark in a January 2026 video that he did “not at all” think NISA was right spread on X in late September, and many replies pointed out that NISA is a tax exemption, not an investment product.
ใปNISA removes the roughly 20% tax on investment gains. It works only when there is a gain and does nothing to prevent losses. Japan made the tax exemption permanent in 2024 and will open it to children in 2027.
ใปWhether to use it is a decision for each household, and Kodomo NISA calls for weighing whose name the money is in, when it can be withdrawn and when it will be needed. Deciding not to use it after understanding it is a different decision from avoiding it out of fear or joining in because everyone else has.
GACKT’s Remark on NISA Resurfaces Nine Months Later
A view on NISA that the singer GACKT gave in a YouTube video began spreading on X on the night of September 26, 2026, setting off a debate that mixed criticism and defense.
The remark comes from an interview of about 18 minutes that the YouTube channel “DROPOUT” published on January 16, 2026. It was recorded as a special interview for a book GACKT released in December 2025.
In the video, GACKT said, “I don’t think NISA is right at all.” He asked people who use NISA to “tell me the structure by which profit is generated,” and criticized starting it without understanding how it works, simply because others do, as a sign that people have “stopped thinking.” He also said investing is “not that easy.”
After an X user posted that part of the video on September 26, reactions spread through investment-focused accounts into September 27. Criticism ran in two directions: that he had confused NISA, a tax exemption, with an investment product, and that he himself had been involved with SPINDLE, a crypto asset whose price collapsed in 2018.
Others defended him, saying the critics had missed the point, and SmartFLASH reported the debate on September 27. As of the morning of September 28, no new comment from GACKT himself on the renewed attention had been confirmed.
In the same week, SBI Securities, Rakuten Securities, Monex and Matsui Securities announced that they would begin taking applications or advance registrations on October 1 for “Kodomo NISA,” which starts in January 2027. According to the Financial Services Agency, Kodomo NISA covers children aged 0 to 17 and allows tax-free saving of up to 600,000 yen a year and 6 million yen in total.
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When NISA Helps and When It Does Not
NISA (Nippon Individual Savings Account) is a Japanese tax-exempt investment account program that lets individuals keep gains and dividends from eligible stocks and investment trusts free of the roughly 20% tax that normally applies. It is part of the tax system, not a fund or a product with holdings of its own.
An exemption that works only when there is a gain
When you sell stocks or investment trusts at a profit, or receive dividends and distributions, Japan normally taxes that gain. According to Japan’s National Tax Agency, the combined rate on listed shares is 20.315%, and the Financial Services Agency (FSA) describes it as “about 20%.” Holdings bought inside a NISA account are exempt.
In numbers, the difference is simple. On a gain of 100,000 yen, a regular account loses about 20,000 yen to tax, while a NISA account keeps the full 100,000 yen. On a loss of 100,000 yen, both accounts lose 100,000 yen.
What produces the gain is whatever you put inside the account. A global equity fund, for example, moves with the profits and share prices of companies around the world, plus currency movements between the yen and foreign currencies, minus management fees. NISA simply leaves the result untaxed. The account itself neither grows nor shrinks.
So if markets fall, a loss in NISA is still a loss. According to the FSA’s NISA guidebook, a NISA loss also cannot be offset against gains in other accounts or carried forward to reduce tax in later years. The exemption helps when there is a gain or a dividend, and does nothing when there is a loss.
| Situation | Treatment in a NISA account |
|---|---|
| A 100,000 yen gain | About 20,000 yen in tax is not charged |
| Dividends or distributions received | Tax-exempt in principle |
| A 100,000 yen drop in value | The loss stays a loss |
| Loss in NISA, gain in another account | Cannot be offset |
| Holding for many years | No time limit on the exemption |
Compiled from the FSA’s “Learn About NISA” page and NISA guidebook.
Permanent since 2024, open to children from 2027
NISA began in 2014. At first the tax exemption lasted only five years and the annual allowance was small. According to the Financial Services Agency’s NISA website, the 2024 reform made the exemption permanent and set a lifetime limit of 18 million yen.
Behind it is a policy Japan has pursued for more than 20 years, often summed up as “from savings to investment.” The government’s June 2001 basic economic policy called for shifting from favoring bank deposits to favoring investment such as shares. In November 2022, the Asset Income Doubling Plan set a goal of doubling the number of NISA accounts and the amount invested within five years. According to FSA figures published in July 2026, there were 28.21 million NISA accounts at the end of 2025, with cumulative purchases of 71 trillion yen, already above the purchase target ahead of schedule.
| Program | Launched | Annual limit | Tax-free period | Withdrawals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General NISA | 2014 | 1.2 million yen | 5 years | Free |
| Junior NISA | 2016 | 800,000 yen | 5 years | Generally not until 18 |
| Tsumitate NISA | 2018 | 400,000 yen | 20 years | Free |
| New NISA | 2024 | 3.6 million yen (18 million yen lifetime) | Permanent | Free |
| Kodomo NISA | 2027 | 600,000 yen (6 million yen total) | Permanent | Generally not until January of the year of junior high entry |
Compiled from FSA materials. General, Junior and Tsumitate NISA stopped accepting new investment at the end of 2023.
Kodomo NISA is an account in the child’s name
Kodomo NISA is an account for children aged 17 and under that begins in January 2027. According to the FSA’s February 2026 issue of Access FSA, it allows up to 600,000 yen a year and 6 million yen in total, and it is limited to regular purchases of investment trusts that the government has designated as suitable for long-term, diversified investing. Individual stocks are not allowed. Holdings can be sold, but the proceeds cannot be freely taken out of the account and stay inside it.
According to Daiwa Institute of Research, in the year the child turns 18, the account passes into the adult NISA without any paperwork and stays tax-exempt. The Financial Services Agency’s tax reform materials show the tax-free holding limit widening from 6 million yen to the adult limit of 18 million yen.
The biggest difference from the adult NISA is that the money belongs to the child. Tax experts explain that money parents or grandparents put in counts as a gift to the child. In Japan, according to the National Tax Agency, gift tax is not charged on up to 1.1 million yen a year, and that allowance counts all gifts the child receives in the same year combined.
Withdrawals are restricted too. Before January of the year the child enters junior high school (for most children, January of the sixth grade of elementary school), money generally cannot be withdrawn except in certain unavoidable circumstances such as disasters or illness. From that January on, it can be withdrawn for the child’s education or living costs, with a document showing the child’s consent. According to Daiwa Institute of Research’s May 2026 summary of the law, a withdrawal outside these conditions closes the account and taxes the gains made up to that point retroactively.
The FSA says the design aims to help families prepare over many years for costs after adulthood, such as going to university. Junior NISA, which ran from 2016 to 2023, did not allow withdrawals until 18, and the FSA stopped taking new accounts, citing its limited use. Kodomo NISA relaxes those withdrawal conditions.
How to read the figure that nearly half of household assets sit in deposits
Behind the government’s steady expansion of NISA is where Japanese households keep their money. According to the Bank of Japan’s comparison of Japan, the U.S. and the euro area published in August 2026, cash and deposits made up nearly half of Japanese household financial assets at the end of March 2026, while shares were under 20%.
| Japan | U.S. | Euro area | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and deposits | 47.2% | 10.7% | 31.1% |
| Shares and other equity | 16.7% | 43.4% | 25.5% |
| Investment trusts | 6.9% | 13.3% | 12.1% |
Bank of Japan, “Charts on the Flow of Funds: Japan, U.S. and Euro Area” (published August 2026, as of end-March 2026). Shares of total household financial assets.
These figures add up the whole country. The Bank of Japan also notes that its household sector includes pension entitlements and the funds of sole proprietors, so dividing the total by population overstates what individuals actually feel they have. Part of the reason the U.S. equity share looks so high is a difference in accounting. Even so, the comparison shows that Japanese households have long held their assets mainly in deposits.
A world where prices did not rise was the exception
Deposits have real advantages: their value does not swing, and the money is available right away. For about 20 years, from the late 1990s until around 2021, Japan’s prices barely moved, and years in which they fell from the year before were not unusual. It was an unusual period by world standards, in which money left in the bank did not lose value.
The government and the Bank of Japan saw this as deflation and treated it as a problem. The Bank of Japan announced a 2% inflation target for consumer prices in January 2013, on the view that prices rising a little each year is the normal state of an economy.
If prices rise 2% a year, the same 1 million yen buys nearly a fifth less after ten years. As long as deposit interest stays below that, the real value of deposits slowly shrinks.
This shift is part of the background to NISA’s expansion. Keeping everything in deposits made sense when prices did not rise, and in a period of gradual inflation it means accepting that slow loss. According to consumer price statistics, inflation has recently settled at around 2%, but since 2022 prices have risen by more than 2% every year.
Deciding Household by Household, With the Facts in Hand
Why does the government give up tax revenue to widen the account?
The government has expanded NISA to encourage stable asset building in a time of rising prices and to steer household money from deposits toward investment. A tax exemption means giving up revenue, yet Japan made it permanent and extended it to children. In the government’s vision, money sitting in deposits flows to companies as growth capital and the returns come back to households. The Asset Income Doubling Plan called this a “virtuous cycle of growth and distribution.”
Part of the plan worked as intended and part did not. Cumulative purchases passed the target ahead of schedule, while the number of accounts is still short of its goal. Much of the money invested through the new NISA, however, went into global and U.S. equity funds, making NISA less a source of funding for Japanese companies than a channel for households to invest abroad. Some estimates and analysts note that choices that are rational for individuals can, in aggregate, become one factor behind yen selling.
Related article
Why the Yen Keeps Weakening Even as Inflation Cools: Japan’s Dilemma Near 162 per Dollar
The critics’ case: the benefit reaches families that already have spare money
The core criticism of Kodomo NISA is that few families can set aside 600,000 yen a year in a child’s name. In the government’s own survey, cited in the 2022 Asset Income Doubling Plan, the top reason for not investing was “no spare money,” given by more than half of respondents. The benefit of a tax exemption reaches only people who can invest, so widening the program can carry the gap between families who can use it and those who cannot into the next generation.
Critics raise two more points. A tax exemption is a policy of giving up revenue, and it shifts the response to worries about education costs and old age toward investing in markets. And most families have not used up the parents’ own NISA allowance, so it is fair to ask whether a child’s account, with less flexibility than a parent’s, needs to exist at all.
Japan’s Ministry of Finance says it made the Kodomo NISA limit smaller than the adult one with this criticism in mind. Its April 2026 issue of the ministry magazine “Finance” wrote that the 600,000 yen annual limit was set with care not to entrench inequality. To critics, a lower cap does not change who benefits.
Supporters have their reasons too. Even households with little connection to investing see the purchasing power of their deposits fall when prices rise faster than deposit interest. It is hard to say that offering no account at all would be fairer, and the program starts with both arguments still standing.
When is not using Kodomo NISA the rational choice?
For many households, deciding not to use NISA after understanding it is a rational choice. Money that will be needed within a few years belongs in deposits, because there is no time to wait out a market fall. The same goes for an emergency fund covering a few months of living costs. And paying down high-interest debt gives a more certain return.
Kodomo NISA adds conditions of its own. Once money is in the child’s name, it cannot go back into the family budget, so it does not work as a flexible reserve. What matters is less the child’s age itself than how long until the money is needed, for example for university, and whether that spending could be postponed if markets were down at the time. Starting at birth gives 18 years; starting at 11 gives seven, a shorter horizon than an adult’s retirement savings.
If markets are down when the child turns 18, there is no need to sell unless the money is going to school costs. The account passes into the adult NISA as it is, so the holdings can stay invested while the family waits for a recovery. Only families that planned to spend the money that year end up selling at a lower price.
A family with unused room in the parents’ own NISA can also invest in the parents’ name and give the money later. In the parents’ name, the money can return to the family budget, but gift rules have to be considered when it is handed over. In the child’s name, both ownership and use are fixed to the child. Which suits a family depends on whether it wants the money as part of the household’s finances or set apart as the child’s. There is also a good case for securing the parents’ own retirement first.
Related article
What Is “NISA Poverty”? Japan’s New NISA Boom and the Hidden Strain on Young Households
GACKT’s question is right when aimed at what is inside the account
In the video, GACKT warned people who start without being able to explain how profit is generated. Knowing the name of a program and understanding what you are invested in are different things, and his warning has a point.
When a program’s name seems to carry a government stamp of approval, some people start without asking what they are investing in, what the fees are, or what they will do if prices fall. Read as advice to those people, “investing is not that easy” is fair.
One reason the debate went past itself is that the question did not separate the program from its contents. In the video, GACKT asked which “major stocks” NISA contains and what percentage dividend NISA pays, treating NISA as a product with holdings of its own.
NISA is the account, and the reasons for any profit lie in the funds or shares placed inside it. Asking “Is NISA right?” blends an assessment of a tax policy with the profitability of what is held, and the question becomes impossible to answer.
Separated, both halves have answers. As a tax policy, NISA can be judged on points such as the inability to offset losses and the limited range of eligible products. Whether the holdings will pay off depends on whether companies around the world keep earning profits, a question separate from NISA. The value of GACKT’s question lies in the second part, and the answer belongs to each person who uses the account.
Knowing about NISA and using it are separate decisions
Understanding what NISA offers and choosing to use it are two different decisions. Even a household with nothing to invest now will be offered this account someday, at a brokerage or bank counter, or when a child heads to university or a parent’s estate is settled. Being able to judge it then as “an option that removes about 20% tax,” against your own finances, is the reason to know about it.
Deciding “not for us, not now” after understanding it is a decision in its own right. It differs in substance from keeping everything in deposits out of fear, or starting because everyone else has, even if the outcome looks the same.
Three points are enough: the exemption works only when there is a gain; it does not prevent losses; and not using it is a legitimate choice once you understand it. With those three, a household can respond to a brokerage’s pitch, the government’s push, or a celebrity’s dismissal using its own finances as the yardstick.
Japanese Reactions to GACKT’s NISA Remarks
These are posts on X, not a measure of Japanese public opinion. The translations are by Sekahan, handles are omitted, and like counts are rounded figures displayed on September 28, 2026 (JST).
The spread began with a short post on the night of September 26 that introduced the video, with roughly 3,800 likes.
GACKTใใใNISAใๅ จๅฆๅฎใใฆใโฆใ https://t.co/709CnEgvlS pic.twitter.com/GVJWioGlY7
— ็ฝ่ใใ (@shirohebidayo) September 26, 2026
GACKT completely rejected NISA…
Shirohebi-kun, September 26, 2026 (translated by Sekahan)
By the next afternoon, the most common response was humor about the mix-up between a tax account and a product. A certified social insurance and labor consultant who invests turned it into a dialogue, drawing roughly 3,800 likes.
GACKT ใใชใใจใNISAใซๆ่ณใใฆใใฎ๏ผใ
— ใใค็ฉ ็ดไธ้๐ ็คพๅดๅฃซ๐AFPๆ่ณๅฎถ (@poidumi_junichi) September 27, 2026
ๆ ชใฏใฉใNISAใซๆ่ณใใฆใ๏ผ๏ผใ
GACKTใใใใNISAใซๆ่ณใใฆใใฎใใฃใฆ่ใใฆใใฎ๐ขใ
ๆ ชใฏใฉใใใผใฃใจโฆNISAใงๆ่ณใใฆใใ๏ผใ
GACKTใใชใใจใใใใใNISAใๅใใฃใๆ่ณใใฆใใฎ๏ผใ
ๆ ชใฏใฉใใใๅใใฃใฆใใคใใใ ใใฉโฆใโฆ
GACKT: “You’re investing IN NISA?”
Retail investors: “Investing in NISA??”
GACKT: “Yeah, I’m asking if you’re investing IN NISA.”
Retail investors: “Um… we invest THROUGH NISA?”
GACKT: “Do you even understand NISA when you invest?”
Retail investors: “Uh, we think we do…”
Poizumi Junichiro, September 27, 2026 (translated by Sekahan)
The most-liked post in our search, at roughly 6,700 likes, set the remark against GACKT’s involvement with SPINDLE. The fundraising and price-drop figures in it are the poster’s own; press reports at the time said the token fell from a presale price of about 30 yen to around 1 yen after listing, and that the FSA had taken issue with the operator’s unregistered business.
ใณใฃใใใใ
— ใกใใใใ (@chawan_wabita) September 27, 2026
ในใใณใใซใจใใใไปฎๆณ้่ฒจใๅฎฃไผใใพใใฃใฆ200ๅใ้้ใใใฎใซ้่ๅบ่ชฟๆปๅ ฅใฃใฆ99%ใๆด่ฝใใใGACKTใใใไธ็ๅๅฝใฎๅช่ฏไผๆฅญใซ้่ชฒ็จใงๆ่ณใงใใNISAใจใใใทในใใ ใๆนๅคใใฆใใใใจๆใฃใ pic.twitter.com/UrhhwbvXed
I was stunned.
For a second I thought GACKT, who promoted a crypto called SPINDLE like crazy, raised 20 billion yen, and saw it crash 99% after the FSA stepped in, was criticizing NISA, a system that lets you invest tax-free in top companies around the world.
Chawango, September 27, 2026 (translated by Sekahan)
Defenders were fewer. The TV personality Valentine Hosokawa accepted what NISA is and argued that the critics were missing GACKT’s point, in a post with roughly 2,100 likes.
ๆฌๅฝ
— ็ดฐๅทใใฌใณใฟใคใณ (@valentine_hoso) September 27, 2026
็พไปฃๆฅๆฌไบบใฏใๆญฃใใใใใใใใฆ้ฆฌ้นฟใๅคใใใญ
NISA๏ผใใผใต๏ผใฃใฆๆ ชๅผๆ่ณใงๅพใๅฉ็ใซ็จ้ใใใใใชใใชใๆฅๆฌใฎๅถๅบฆใใญ๏ผ
GACKTใใใNISAใซใคใใฆ่ฉฑใใใฆใๅ ๅฎนใฏใGACKTใใใNISAใ็ฅใฃใฆใใ๏ผ็ฅใใชใใ๏ผใชใใฆใฉใใงใ่ฏใใใญ๏ผ
่ฉฑใฎใใคใณใใฏใใใใใใชใใงใใ๏ผโฆ
NISA is Japan’s system that makes profits from stock investing tax-free, right?
Whether GACKT knows NISA or not doesn’t matter in what he’s saying about it, does it?
That’s not the point, is it?
Valentine Hosokawa, September 27, 2026 (excerpt, translated by Sekahan)
Some users answered with their own results. One investor posted a screenshot of their portfolio, with roughly 1,800 likes.
GACKTใใใซNISAใๅ จๅฆๅฎใใใ
— ใใถใใก (@kabukichi_fire) September 27, 2026
ไฝใจใชใใใฃใฆใๅฅดใฏใใ ใฎใใซใจ่จใใใใใฉใ
ไฝใจใชใS&P500ใ็ฉใฟไธใใ็ตๆใใใใงใใ
็งใฏใใ ใฎใใซใงใใใใ๏ผ pic.twitter.com/CFOCWqpsIl
GACKT rejected NISA outright and said people who do it without really thinking are just idiots.
This is what I got from piling into the S&P 500 without really thinking.
Am I just an idiot?
Kabukichi, September 27, 2026 (translated by Sekahan)
Most of the reaction was humor and sarcasm from investment-focused accounts, centered on correcting the confusion between the account and a product, with the SPINDLE comparison spreading furthest. Few posts debated the merits of NISA itself, the government’s push, or Kodomo NISA. The like counts compare posts found in searches at one point in time and do not measure the overall balance of opinion.
Know the Account, Choose What Goes Inside
Knowledge for deciding whether it fits your household
Learning what NISA offers is not a commitment to start. It is the knowledge needed to judge whether an option that removes tax on gains fits your own finances. The profit comes from what you put inside, so understanding the account turns the question “How does this make money?” toward the contents, and that question is one each user answers for themselves. The debate over GACKT’s remark began where the account and its contents were not told apart.
Kodomo NISA is an account for saving over many years in a child’s name, and it clearly suits some families more than others. Can the family spare 600,000 yen a year? How long until the money is needed, and could the family wait if markets were down? How does it compare with saving in the parents’ name? Where does it rank against the parents’ own retirement? Only each household can answer these.
How much of your money will you not need for a while, and where have you decided to keep it? Whether you have an answer to that question changes the substance of the decision, whether you end up using the account or not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is NISA an investment product in Japan?
No. NISA is a Japanese tax-exempt account program, and according to the Financial Services Agency’s NISA website, it removes the roughly 20% tax on gains and dividends from the stocks or investment trusts held inside it. Any profit comes from those holdings, and according to the FSA’s NISA guidebook, losses in a NISA account cannot be offset against gains elsewhere or carried forward.
What is Kodomo NISA and when does it start?
Kodomo NISA is a tax-free investment account for children aged 0 to 17 that starts in January 2027. According to the FSA’s February 2026 issue of Access FSA, it allows up to 600,000 yen a year and 6 million yen in total, limited to designated investment trusts bought through regular contributions, and it passes into the adult NISA in the year the child turns 18.
Can parents withdraw money from a Kodomo NISA account?
Generally not before January of the year the child enters junior high school (usually January of the sixth grade), except in certain unavoidable circumstances such as disasters or illness. According to Daiwa Institute of Research’s May 2026 summary of the law, withdrawals from that January on are allowed for the child’s education or living costs with the child’s written consent, and a withdrawal outside these conditions closes the account and taxes past gains retroactively.
How did Japanese social media react to GACKT’s NISA remarks?
Reactions on X after September 26, 2026 were mostly humor and correction, pointing out that NISA is a tax exemption rather than a product, and the most widely shared posts contrasted the remark with GACKT’s past involvement with the crypto asset SPINDLE. A smaller group defended his underlying warning against investing without understanding, and few posts debated NISA policy or Kodomo NISA itself.
Sekahan on YouTube
We publish video summaries of articles like this one, along with short clips built around Japanese reactions.
Reference Links
- Kodomo NISA (Tsumitate Investment Allowance for Minors), Access FSA February 2026 (Japanese)๏ฝFinancial Services Agency
- FY2026 Tax Reform: Main FSA-Related Items in the Tax Reform Outline (Japanese)๏ฝFinancial Services Agency
- Overview of “Kodomo NISA,” Starting January 2027 (Japanese)๏ฝDaiwa Institute of Research
- Learn About NISA (Japanese)๏ฝFinancial Services Agency NISA Website
- NISA Quick Guidebook, July 2023 (Japanese)๏ฝFinancial Services Agency
- Charts on the Flow of Funds: Japan, U.S. and Euro Area, August 31, 2026 (Japanese)๏ฝBank of Japan
- The “Price Stability Target” of 2 Percent (Japanese)๏ฝBank of Japan
- Finance, April 2026: FY2026 Tax Reform Special Issue (Japanese)๏ฝMinistry of Finance
- Advance Registration for “Kodomo NISA” Accounts Begins October 1, 2026 (Japanese)๏ฝSBI Securities
- GACKT Questions NISA Investors as “Stopped Thinking,” While Critics Recall SPINDLE (Japanese)๏ฝSmartFLASH
