Japan Life Insurance Sales Decline despite Premium Growth

Int’l News Desk: Japan’s life insurance sector posted mixed results through the first four months of the fiscal year, with new policy sales declining even as overall premium income edged higher. Figures covering 41 companies from the start of April to the end of July 2026 show accumulated new individual insurance business of 5.436 million policies valued at 18,161 billion yen, or about 114.9 billion dollars. That volume represented 91.8 percent of the same period a year earlier while the value held steady at 100.2 percent.

In July alone the industry recorded 1.342 million new individual insurance policies worth 4,792 billion yen, or 30.3 billion dollars, equating to 92.8 percent of the prior year’s volume and 98.3 percent of its value. New individual annuity contracts accumulated to 394,000 over the four months with a total value of 2,354 billion yen, or 14.9 billion dollars, falling to 83.2 percent by number and 83.7 percent by value compared with the previous year. July itself saw 93,000 new annuity contracts valued at 563 billion yen.

Group insurance provided a brighter note. New group insurance business reached 262,000 policies valued at 1,768 billion yen, up 19.5 percent in volume and 16.8 percent in value. Group annuity activity remained minimal.

Business in force continued to expand modestly. Individual insurance policies in force stood at 195.79 million with a value of 778,673 billion yen, up 0.2 percent year on year. Individual annuities in force totalled 20.18 million contracts worth 107,814 billion yen, a 2.3 percent rise. Group insurance in force reached 42.92 million policies valued at 429,011 billion yen, up 1.4 percent, while group annuities stood at 13.27 million policies worth 35,647 billion yen, up 0.6 percent.

Accumulated premium income for the four months totalled 12,827 billion yen, or 81.2 billion dollars, a 2.3 percent increase. July contributed 3,258 billion yen. Combined payments for claims, annuities and benefits came to 6,279 billion yen, down 1.2 percent, including 2,828 billion yen in claims, 1,634 billion yen in annuities and 1,816 billion yen in benefits. Surrender values rose sharply by 40.2 percent to 4,839 billion yen, while operating expenses increased 5 percent to 1,765 billion yen.

Total assets across the 41 companies reached 403,052 billion yen, or 2.55 trillion dollars, at the end of July, a 0.5 percent gain, with invested assets making up 95.9 percent of the total. The data were reported by Insurance Asia based on industry figures, using an exchange rate of roughly 158 yen to the dollar.