Japan

Axco provides details on the life insurance sector including Japanese market participants, reinsurance and distribution channels. The reports describe classes of business from both individual and group life such as whole life, endowment, term life and unit-linked.
Information on non-life classes for example critical illness and private medical insurance.

The report describes the public and private healthcare system in Japan, the scope of cover, accessibility financing and provides an analysis of how the public and private systems complement each other.

Axco reports on the three pillars of Japanese pension provision.

• State pension benefits including benefit calculations and eligibility criteria 
• Workplace pension provision; types of schemes calculations eligibility and; tax implications
• Voluntary individual pension provision, type of products and tax implications

The Japan report provides an in-depth analysis of the regulatory framework governing social security as well as details on financing and eligibility. Information includes but is not limited to

• state pensions,
• permanent disability benefit
• occupational accident and disease
• maternity and paternity payments 

Life premium income dropped by 10.7% in fiscal year 2016 (year ending 31 March 2017), followed by a further 2.2% fall in fiscal 2017 to JPY 31.6trn (USD 281.7bn). Initial indications for fiscal 2018 are for a return to premium growth, which the regulator primarily ascribes to an increase in foreign currency denominated whole life insurance.

The figures above exclude the internal reinsurance arrangement of pre-2007 policies ....

There were 12,969 DB pension plans in existence at 31 March 2019 (down from 13,650 in 2017), including 10 (down from 110) employee pension funds (EPFs) and 6,109 (up from 5,236) corporate DC plans. There are also a large number of other small corporate DB and DC plans written by the cooperatives including the National Mutual Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenkyoren), which is the largest of these.

The primary pensions market is split between life companies and trust banks ....

Providing at least the same benefits as the primary social security employees' health insurance (EHI), health insurance societies may be established by employers who employ over 300 people.

Although patients are required to contribute to their treatment costs, the insurance market offers very limited private medical insurance (PMI). Market sources note that most Japanese people would prefer to pay the copayments out-of-pocket rather than buy insurance ....