This article summarizes the "2025 Insurance Monitoring Report" published by the Financial Services Agency on July 4, 2025, which compiles the results of monitoring insurance companies during the 2024 business year, analysis of the current state of the insurance industry, and future response measures.
Key Points
Overview of the Insurance Market
- 41 life insurance companies, 57 non-life insurance companies (including branches in Japan), and 123 small amount and short-term insurance providers operate businesses (as of June 2025)
- Major life insurance groups occupy more than half of the domestic market in life insurance
- Major non-life insurance groups occupy over 80% of the domestic market in non-life insurance
- Major life insurance companies increased profits in FY2024 due to increased interest and dividend income from higher dividends on domestic and foreign stocks
- Major non-life insurance groups increased profits in FY2024 due to increased gains on sales of policy stocks
Business Trends of Life Insurance Companies
- Business expansion into non-insurance fields is accelerating in response to declining birthrate, aging population, and DX progress in the financial industry
- Nippon Life acquired Like (childcare business) and OA Soken (nursing care business) (November 2024, January 2025)
- Dai-ichi Life HD acquired And Do HD (real estate business) (December 2024)
- Movement to raise assumed interest rates is spreading, with progress in responding to "a world with interest rates"
- "Negative spread" is decreasing due to reduction in past high assumed interest rate contracts
Revenue Structure of Non-Life Insurance Companies
- Fire insurance had generated insurance underwriting losses exceeding 200 billion yen in recent years due to frequent and severe natural disasters, but significantly decreased in FY2023
- Profits are generated in other insurance such as automobile insurance
- Overall profit margin (insurance underwriting profit ÷ net premiums written) was +2.3% in FY2023
- Response to the shrinking automobile insurance market remains an ongoing challenge
Initiatives to Restore Trust in the Insurance Industry
- Implementation of fundamental improvement measures for insurance claim fraud cases and premium adjustment cases
- Continuation of follow-up on business improvement plans
- Issuance of business improvement orders to non-life insurance companies based on information leakage incidents
- Issuance of business improvement orders to insurance agencies with problems in insurance solicitation management systems
- Implementation of institutional and supervisory responses including amendments to the Insurance Business Act
Priority Monitoring Items
- Enhancement of sales staff management systems, enhancement of solicitation management systems at insurance agencies
- Enhancement of foreign currency-denominated insurance solicitation management, monitoring of sales commissions for insurance products for agencies
- Ensuring financial soundness, enhancement of group governance
- Strengthening anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and counter-proliferation financing measures
- Cybersecurity measures, economic security responses
- Response to climate change, customer-oriented product development
The article shows that the Financial Services Agency is promoting insurance administration conscious of the PDCA cycle to encourage the construction of sustainable business models in the insurance industry and thorough customer-oriented business operations, continuing in-depth dialogue and monitoring with insurance companies.