Otoshidama (お年玉, おとしだま) is the money Japanese children receive at New Year from parents, grandparents and relatives, handed over in small decorated envelopes called pochibukuro. The name comes from toshidama, the year’s spirit that the New Year deity was believed to share out, often as a rice cake. For a junior high school student, the most common amount is 4,001 to 5,000 yen.
The Envelope at the Door
It happens in the entrance hall, usually, before anyone has taken their shoes off. The grandparents have been waiting. There is a round of akemashite omedetō gozaimasu, a bow that the smallest child performs a beat late, and then an aunt produces a little envelope with a rabbit or a cartoon character on it and holds it out with both hands.
The child takes it with both hands too, because a parent is watching. Thank you. Another bow. The envelope disappears into a coat pocket, and for the rest of the visit the child is quietly counting how many relatives are still to arrive.
Later, in the car, the envelopes are handed over to a parent “for safekeeping.” Most children know exactly what that means. In a 2019 survey reported by Nippon.com, 80% of parents kept part or all of their children’s otoshidama.
“The envelope is small on purpose. What it carries is a whole family’s way of saying: we are still here, and you are growing.”
Where Otoshidama Came From
The first otoshidama was not money. It was rice.
The folklorist Shintani Takanori, interviewed for the Japanese government’s Highlighting Japan magazine, explains that toshidama (年玉) literally means a year spirit. Under the old way of counting age, everyone turned a year older together at New Year, and the toshigami (年神), the deity of the new year, was believed to grant each person one more year of life, one toshidama, as it arrived. Shintani calls that belief the origin of the modern gift. The Digital Daijisen gives a second reading of the name, the year’s gift.
The gift took the form of rice cakes. The Nihon Daihyakka Zensho encyclopedia notes that in many regions households made small mochi, one for each member of the family, offered them on the New Year shelf, and then ate them in ozoni, the New Year soup, taking in the new year’s strength. On the Koshiki Islands of Kagoshima a villager dressed as Toshidon (年殿), a New Year deity, still visits homes with children at the turn of the year and hands out large round mochi, and those rice cakes are called toshidama. The stacked kagami mochi is the same idea on a grander scale.
By the late Muromachi period New Year gifts were common even among the court nobility, and by the Edo period they had become specialised. According to Heibonsha’s encyclopedia, samurai gave swords, merchants gave fans and doctors gave pills. One rule set toshidama apart from year-end gifts: it flowed from the senior to the junior, the reverse of oseibo. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten records that by the Meiji era the gifts were things like hand towels and printed calendars, increasingly aimed at children, and that pocket money for children is, in most places, a modern custom.
Pochibukuro: The Little Envelopes
The money goes into a pochibukuro (ぽち袋), which the Digital Daijisen defines as a small paper envelope for a tip or for otoshidama. The name has a surprisingly worldly origin. Yoshikai Naoto, a specially appointed professor of Japanese language and literature at Doshisha Women’s College, explains that pochi is Kansai dialect for a little something, a tip. The envelopes were first made for the wealthy patrons of Kyoto’s hanamachi, the geisha districts, who commissioned showy designs from woodblock print shops to hand tips to maiko. He finds no examples of the word from before the Meiji era, and the earliest use the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten cites is from a story published in 1928.
Today the designs run from cranes and pine to the year’s zodiac animal and every character a child might want.
How Much to Give: Otoshidama Amounts by Age
The amount rises with the child’s age, and every family knows roughly where the lines fall. The clearest recent figures come from the research company Intage, which surveyed 5,000 people aged 15 to 79 in November 2025 for its 2026 New Year report.
| Age of the child | Most common amount per child |
|---|---|
| Under school age | Up to 1,000 yen |
| Lower elementary school | 2,001 to 3,000 yen |
| Upper elementary school | 4,001 to 5,000 yen |
| Junior high school | 4,001 to 5,000 yen, chosen by more than half of givers |
| High school | 9,001 to 10,000 yen, chosen by half of givers |
| University or vocational school | 9,001 to 10,000 yen, chosen by two in three givers |
The same survey put the average total budget for otoshidama at 24,039 yen per giver, down for the second year running, and 40.2% of respondents said rising prices and the weak yen would affect what they gave.
For children, those envelopes add up. A November 2025 survey by the educational publisher Gakken, reported by Mynavi News, found that the average total a child collected at New Year 2025 was 23,158 yen for elementary school students, 29,533 yen for junior high and 27,724 yen for high school.
Put simply: a 1,000 yen note for small children, around 3,000 yen in the first school years, a 5,000 yen note from the upper elementary years, and a 10,000 yen note from high school on.
Otoshidama Etiquette
The rules are few, and most of them follow from the idea that otoshidama is a blessing handed down.
Use new notes. Clean, uncreased notes, shinsatsu (新札), are the custom. Since July 3, 2024, the Bank of Japan has issued new designs, with Shibusawa Eiichi on the 10,000 yen note, Tsuda Umeko on the 5,000 and Kitasato Shibasaburō on the 1,000, so a crisp new-series note is the obvious choice.
Give downward only. Otoshidama goes from an adult to a child, or from a senior to a junior, so it is not given to your own parents.
Hand it over in person. Otoshidama belongs to the first days of January, when families visit each other, the same days as the first shrine visit, hatsumōde.
Until What Age Do Children Get Otoshidama?
There is no fixed cut-off, and families argue about it. In the 2019 survey by the tutoring company Meikō Network reported by Nippon.com, the most common answer from parents was that giving should stop at high school age, chosen by 49.6%. Yet the 2026 Intage survey shows plenty of givers still putting 10,000 yen in an envelope for university and vocational students.
In many families it ends when the child starts earning, and then it quietly reverses. Within a few years the young adult who stopped receiving envelopes is the one handing them to nieces and nephews.
The obligation is real enough to feel. In the same 2019 survey, 77.2% of parents called otoshidama a significant or somewhat of a burden, and 76.9% of those pointed to the children of relatives, against 35.8% who named their own.
Digital Otoshidama and Cashless Envelopes
The newest change is on the receiving end. In the Intage survey for New Year 2026, 38.5% of people aged 20 and under said they would like to receive otoshidama by smartphone payment, up from 30.5% a year earlier and the highest since the question was first asked for New Year 2023.
The givers have not moved. More than 90% of adults in the same survey said they would hand over cash in person to their own children, grandchildren or relatives’ children. For now digital otoshidama is mostly a wish, and the pochibukuro is safe.
It is not hard to see why. A transfer arrives as a notification. An envelope arrives in someone’s hands, with a bow, in a doorway, on the first days of the year. That moment is most of the gift. Where otoshidama sits among the other customs of the holiday is set out in the guide to Japanese New Year traditions.
Sources
- 2026 otoshidama survey, Intage amounts by age, 24,039 yen budget, 38.5% wanting cashless, over 90% giving cash
- Average otoshidama totals by school stage, Gakken survey via Mynavi News 23,158, 29,533 and 27,724 yen
- Otoshidama: New Year Money Gifts Adored by Kids, But a Chore for Parents, Nippon.com the 2019 Meikō Network survey
- The Origins and Significance of Japan's New Year's Culture, Highlighting Japan, Government of Japan toshidama as a year spirit, Toshidon
- Toshidama, Digital Daijisen, Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, Heibonsha and Nihon Daihyakka Zensho via Kotobank mochi as toshidama, Edo gifts, gifts flowing downward
- Pochibukuro, Digital Daijisen and Nihon Kokugo Daijiten via Kotobank definition, 1928 citation
- The origin of pochibukuro, Yoshikai Naoto, Doshisha Women's College Kansai pochi, Kyoto patrons and maiko
- Bank of Japan notes currently issued, Bank of Japan the new series issued July 3, 2024
FAQ
What is otoshidama?
Otoshidama (お年玉) is money given to children at Japanese New Year by parents, grandparents and other relatives, in small envelopes called pochibukuro. It is usually handed over in the first days of January, when families visit each other.
How much otoshidama should I give?
Intage’s survey for New Year 2026 found the most common amounts were up to 1,000 yen for preschoolers, 2,001 to 3,000 yen for lower elementary pupils, 4,001 to 5,000 yen for upper elementary and junior high students, and 9,001 to 10,000 yen for high school and university students.
What does otoshidama mean?
It comes from toshidama (年玉), read as the year’s spirit or the year’s gift. It was once the life force, often given as a rice cake, that the New Year deity was believed to grant each person along with another year of age. The o at the front is the polite prefix.
Do you have to use new bills for otoshidama?
It is strongly preferred. Clean, uncreased new notes are the custom, and the Bank of Japan’s newest notes, issued from July 3, 2024, are the natural choice.
Until what age do Japanese children get otoshidama?
There is no fixed rule. In a 2019 survey reported by Nippon.com, 49.6% of parents said giving should end at high school age, but many relatives keep giving through university, and in many families it ends once the young person starts working.
Can I give otoshidama to my parents?
No. Otoshidama flows from senior to junior, from an adult to a child, so it is not given to your own parents.