Source: Financial Associated Press

Editor: Shi Zhengcheng

Nomura Group, Japan’s largest brokerage, made a rather bold decision this summer: ** Hire Imma, a well-known local AI Internet celebrity, as an endorsement, trying to attract more young people to open tax-free investment accounts. **

For Chinese investors, there are two concepts that need to be introduced here, AI Internet celebrity and Japan's investment tax-free account reform.

AI internet celebrity earlier than AIGC era

AI internet celebrity refers to the image of AIGC who has been active on major social media platforms in recent years, and usually has its own personality. Take Imma as an example, which is the image launched in 2018 by Aww, Japan's first virtual human production company. **Different from the current AIGC graphics, most of Imma's works use 3D head portraits combined with real-life real bodies and backgrounds, which greatly enhances the realism of the works. **

After operating in the past few years and catching up with the trend of the times, Imma now has nearly 1 million fans on the social media platforms Instagram and TikTok. What's more striking is that Imma, as a virtual image, has also left many imprints in the real society.

For example, Imma was projected in the center of the venue as a representative of Japan during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Paralympic Games. BMW, IKEA, and many beauty brands have asked her to do endorsement.

Figure: Source Tokyo Olympic Games official account

Nomura’s Ambition: Using AI influencers to promote investment among young people

Obviously, such an image spokesperson is hardly attractive to middle-aged and elderly people, so Nomura recruited Imma, and at the beginning, it was to promote the opening of long-term investment tax-free accounts (NISA) for young people in the government, as the "secondary investment account" of personal pensions. Three Pillars"**. This system is also borrowed from the British Individual Savings Plan (ISA) in Japan.

According to the reforms promoted by the Fumio Kishida government, Japan will launch a new NISA system in early 2024. **For individuals, the overall tax-free investment amount will be increased to 18 million yen, and the time limit for accounts will be cancelled. The trust's "growth investment quota" is 12 million yen, while the "accumulated investment quota" for long-term fixed-amount investment in low-risk targets can be used up to 18 million. How to allocate depends on individual risk preferences. **

Figure: Source Japan Financial Services Agency

In order to encourage residents to convert savings into investment, the biggest support given by the Japanese government is tax exemption. Even under the policy background of encouraging investment, ** Japan's capital gains tax has reached 20%. **

For the Japanese government and brokerages, behind the vigorous promotion of NISA, there is also the unique background of the aging era. **Take Nomura Securities as an example. Most of the retail clients of this brokerage are over 60 years old. Attracting young people to enter the market is also the basis for the brokerage to "have business in the future". ** For this reason, Nomura not only "started from a baby", took the initiative to enter middle school campuses to teach economics knowledge, but also invested in the establishment of a joint venture company with the instant messaging giant Line, enduring losses just to get closer to young people.

From the perspective of the Japanese government, the problem of personal pension savings is also very serious. "Nikkei Shimbun" mentioned in a report at the end of last year that at present, 40% of individual investors in the Japanese stock market are elderly people aged 70 and above. ** Over the past 30 years, the largest group of retail investors in Japan has changed from 50+ in 1989 to 60+ in 1999 to 70+ in 2019 . **Looking at it this way, it basically means that the Japanese who love and are able to trade stocks are getting old.

But not investing does not mean that you need to save for retirement. **The Japanese Financial Services Agency once released a highly controversial report in 2019. The core argument is that a Japanese retired couple whose men are over 65 years old and whose women are over 60 years old, if they live only on pensions Monthly will face a 50,000 yen cost gap. **If the two continue to work together for 20 years, the cost of the shortfall will reach 13 million yen, and so on. The original intention of the Japanese government is to encourage the working-age population to increase long-term investment.

Various factors have also pushed traditional financial giants to bravely take the step of asking AI influencers to endorse tax-free investment account products.

Hiroshi Tanigaki, a spokesman for Nomura Holdings Group, told the media that there were some initial concerns about this matter (inviting AI influencers to endorse). But what Nomura wants to emphasize is that the new tax-free investment policy will bring about huge changes. Tanigaki said: "I have been emphasizing with the advertising agency that we need more and more impact, so they finally suggested, should we try virtual people?"

However, whether the efforts of the Japanese government and the Nomura Group can be successful still requires a small question mark. For Japanese young people with low incomes, no urgent financial planning, and uncertain economic prospects, to what extent can AI influencers drive them to open long-term investment accounts?