TOKYO — Takazumi Fukuoka should be exactly what Japan needs to get its economy moving again.

Mr. Fukuoka, an art director at a small online media company, has an active and free-spending social life. A part-time D.J., he often buys records in the music shops of Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya district. He eats and drinks out regularly, too.

But his salary has barely budged in recent years. So he is spending every yen he earns.

“I’m not saving,” said Mr. Fukuoka, 30. “There are people my age who are married with kids and have their own houses, but I don’t have any of that.”

It is an increasingly common refrain in Japan — and one that complicates the government’s efforts to revitalize the country’s economy.

The country’s savings rate, long one of the highest in the world, is now below zero. In short, Japan’s citizens are spending more than they earn. By comparison, the rate in the United States, where consumers have a reputation for living beyond their means, is on the rise, hitting 5.5 percent in January.