Yoichi Nakamura, a senior economist at the Japan Center for Economic Research wrote a paper "Has the Japanese Household Savings Rate Really Changed?"

In this paper he states "For the 6-year period of 1973-1978, the SNA savings rate rose above 20%." A graph in the paper shows the maximum SNA savings rate peaked near 24% during the years 1974-76. This rate later fell gradually, with a few temporary upward bumps, until it reached about 6% in the early 2000's (2001 is the end-point of the graph in this paper).

However, Nakamura argues that most reports, which seek to explain this dramatic decline as a result of the aging of Japanese population, etc. ignore price changes. In price-adjusted terms, Nakamura says, the Japanese savings rate remained in the band of 10% to 15% throughout the three decades from 1970 to 2001 with only a few brief bumps up or down outside that band. Nakamura makes the case that the Japanese savings rate has thus not changed significantly, when adjusting for prices.

The bottom line answer to the question then is that in price adjusted terms, the Japanese savings rate during the period of 1970-2001 reached a maximum of only 16% in 1978. In nominal terms however, it did approach 25% during 1974-1976. In either approach, that extraordinary savings rate is now a thing of the past, and few if any economists expect it to repeat.
Source(s):
http://www.jcer.or.jp/eng/pdf/kenrep030722e.pdf

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