A Hiroshima University-led study conducted with Rakuten Securities finds that practical digital skills, positive financial attitudes, and self-protection are more consistently associated with lower old-age anxiety than traditional financial knowledge alone.
Financial education around the world has emphasized basic financial knowledge: understanding interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification. This knowledge remains important as financial literacy is associated with improved retirement planning and lower anxiety about old age. In an era where financial services are increasingly moving online, the applicability of this association has come under investigation.
A new study from Hiroshima University, conducted with Rakuten Securities, suggests that knowledge alone may no longer be enough to capture the financial capabilities most closely linked to well-being in digital environments. The researchers analyzed data from 94,695 digitally active Japanese retail investors aged 40 to 64, and examined how different components of digital financial literacy were associated with self-reported anxiety about life after age 65.
Their findings were published in the International Journal of Financial Studies on June 1, 2026.
"We examined whether the traditional "Big Three" financial knowledge component shows the same association with old-age anxiety as more practical and protective components of digital financial literacy, such as practical know-how, positive financial attitude, and self-protection," says Yoshihiko Kadoya , professor at Hiroshima University's Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences .
This study draws on data from the 2025 wave of the "Survey on Life and Money," an online panel survey jointly administered by Rakuten Securities and the Kadoya Lab at Hiroshima University. The survey was conducted in January and February 2025 and targeted active account securities account holders aged 18 and older who had logged in to their accounts at least once during the previous year.
Overall, digital financial literacy was negatively associated with old-age anxiety. However, when the researchers decomposed digital financial literacy into eight components, they found that the association differed substantially across components. The traditional "Big Three" financial knowledge component—covering interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification—did not show the same robust negative association with old-age anxiety once other digital financial competencies were taken into account. By contrast, practical know-how, positive financial attitude, and self-protection were more consistently associated with lower old-age anxiety.
"These findings do not mean that traditional financial knowledge is unimportant," says Kadoya. "Rather, they suggest that in digital financial environments, financial education may need to move beyond knowledge alone. People may also need practical skills, positive financial attitudes, and the ability to protect themselves from digital financial risks."
The findings challenge a long-standing assumption in financial education: that basic financial knowledge is a sufficient proxy for financial capability. In the digital age, financial well-being may depend not only on what people know, but also on what they can do, how they make decisions, and how well they can protect themselves from online financial risks.
"One striking feature of this study is the scale of the data. By analyzing nearly 95,000 digitally active investors, we were able to examine digital financial literacy components in detail," Kadoya explains.
The researchers interpret the results through what they call an "awareness–actionability" perspective. Traditional financial knowledge may help people recognize retirement-related risks, such as inflation, market volatility, and longevity risk. But awareness alone may not be accompanied by lower anxiety if people do not also have the ability to act on that knowledge in digital financial environments. Practical know-how and self-protection may therefore be especially relevant for digitally active middle-aged and older investors approaching retirement.
"Our results suggest that financial education should not replace traditional knowledge, but expand it," Kadoya said. "The goal should be to help people understand financial concepts, use digital financial services effectively, make sound decisions, and protect themselves from fraud and other digital risks. A simple analogy is that traditional financial literacy is like knowing the rules of the road, while digital financial literacy also requires being able to drive safely in real traffic."
For policymakers and financial institutions, the study points to the importance of financial education programs and customer support tools that go beyond information provision. Instead of simply giving people more financial information, digital-age financial education may need to help users translate knowledge into action.
The authors caution that the study identifies associations, not causal effects. The data are cross-sectional, and the sample consists of digitally active securities account holders, not the general population. Old-age anxiety was measured using a single survey item. Future studies using longitudinal or experimental designs will be needed to examine whether strengthening practical and protective digital financial competencies can reduce old-age anxiety over time.
Still, the study adds to growing evidence that financial education may need to evolve as financial services become increasingly digital. "Rather than replacing traditional financial education, we hope this research will help expand it—from simply knowing financial concepts to being able to use, judge, and protect oneself in digital financial environments," Kadoya concludes.
This study was co-authored by Jargalmaa Amarsanaa and Honoka Nabeshima at Hiroshima University.
This work was supported by Rakuten Securities; the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan (MHLW) under the Health and Labour Sciences Research Grant (25GB1002); and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (JP23K25534, JP24K21417).
The funders played no role in the design of the study; in the analysis or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.
