There are roughly 325,000 married women in Japan with the family name Watanabe. The country has about the same number of Mrs Itos, significantly more Mrs Suzukis and almost twice as many Mrs Satos.
But for some reason and for some decades, Mrs Watanabe has been the one chosen to stand as the symbolic byword for all Japanese households — a mythical matriarch credited with key decision-making powers and executive control over the family purse-strings.
Over the years since Japan’s “miracle” growth period in the 1970s and 1980s, Mrs Watanabe’s financial firepower has been the stuff of fascination for everyone from local bank managers and backstreet gold retailers in Japan to bond traders on Wall Street. Today, more so than ever, everyone wants to know Mrs Watanabe’s next move.