Premium income of life insurers in Japan FY 2014-2023
The premiums income of life insurance companies in Japan amounted to around 37.5 trillion Japanese yen in the fiscal year 2023. This represented an increase of 8.8 percent compared to the previous fiscal year.
Life insurance in Japan
Japan is one of the largest life insurance markets worldwide. It is characterized by a high life insurance ownership rate among consumers and an income from life insurance premiums of around 30 trillion Japanese yen every year. Life insurance companies face challenges related to Japan's demographic shift and declining population. The value of individual insurance policies in force of Japanese life insurers, which describes the total amount of death benefits, has been on a steady decline in recent years, while the opposite is the case for the number of policies in force. This trend can be attributed to an increasing share of health-related insurance products that do not include any or only small amounts of death benefits.
Third sector insurance
Given a rising life expectancy and an aging population in Japan, health insurance has become the leading type of new individual insurance policies taken out in recent years. Health insurance and other insurances that cover medical and care expenses, such as cancer insurance, fall under the category of the so-called third sector insurance in Japan. Until 2001, only foreign life insurers were allowed to sell third sector insurance products. As a result of deregulations in the insurance industry, domestic insurers also began to offer third sector insurance.
