Dai-ichi Life : Everything you need to know

Dai-ichi Life: Everything you need to know

About Dai-ichi Life

Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc. provides life and health insurance, and pension products to clients across Asia and Australia. It operates three segments, namely:

• Domestic Life Insurance – which covers life insurance and savings-type products in Japan through financial institutions that support asset formation after retirement
• Overseas Insurance – which offers life insurance in Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia, India, and Thailand
• Others – which includes other businesses of the firm’s subsidiaries, particularly asset management-related businesses

Dai-ichi Life ranks 213th in Forbes 2022 Global 2000, which lists the world’s largest public companies. It is also the second-biggest Japanese insurer in the rankings, trailing only Tokio Marine. The firm has total assets amounting to $571.4 billion, while revenue is at $66.7 billion, according to Forbes.

In 2022, A.M. Best ranked Dai-ichi Life as the second-largest insurance company in Japan, after only to Nippon Life, and seventh in the Asia-Pacific region based on direct written premiums.

Brief history

The company was founded by Tsuneta Yano on September 15, 1902, becoming one of the oldest mutual insurance companies in Japan until a motion to demutualise was passed in 2009. The firm established its first overseas representative office in New York in 1975 and opened its first European office in London in 1982.

In 1990, Dai-ichi Life invested in Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, marking the first time a Japanese company participated in capitalizing a leading US insurer. In 1996, the firm established the Dai-ichi Property and Casualty Insurance Co. Ltd. A year later, it founded the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

Daichi Life entered an agreement on total business cooperation with the Industrial Bank of Japan, now Mizuho Financial Group in 1999, a year before it agreed to form a comprehensive business alliance with Sompo Japan Insurance and Aflac.

2010 marked the company’s demutualization and stock listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with the firm raising ¥1.01 trillion. A year later, Dai-chi Life completed the takeover of ASX-listed Tower Australia Life Insurance Company, which was later renamed TAL. The firm later purchased Protective Life Corporation in 2015.

As of March 2022, the firm has one of the biggest assets of any listed company in Japan with a total of ¥38.7 trillion on its stand-alone balance sheet.

Leadership at Dai-ichi Life

Seiji Inagaki – president & CEO

Inagaki joined The Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1986. He later played a central role in the demutualization of the company in 2010 and led the development of a system to implement the group’s growth strategy. He was appointed executive officer of Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company Limited in 2012, rising through the ranks and becoming managing executive officer in 2015. Inagaki was named director, and managing executive officer of Dai-ichi Holdings in 2016 and as president less than a year later. He was appointed CEO in 2022. Inagaki also serves as chairperson for The Life Insurance Association of Japan.

Culture

Dai-ichi Life is heavily involved in promoting the health of the communities it serves. In line with this, the firm has launched several initiatives, including:

• Coordinating with leading national centres to pursue advanced and specialized medical research in Japan. These include the National Cancer Center, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, National Institute of Longevity Sciences, National Center for Child Health and Development, and the National Center for Global Health and Medicine.
• Collaborating with prefectural and city governments for various social initiatives, including health promotion, monitoring of elderly people and childcare support, in an effort to solve various challenges facing the local communities.
• Establishment the Public Health Award in 1950 to show its gratitude and respect for the individuals and groups working to improve public health and hygiene amid worsening health conditions following World War II.
• Establishment of the Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) in 1959 for the purpose of preventing, diagnosing, and treating various cardiovascular diseases through medical research.
• Periodically holding AED workshops in which participants can learn basic life support techniques such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of AEDs.
• Promoting blood donations and bone marrow bank registration under the spirit of mutual assistance embodied by the phrase, “one for all, all for one.”
• Participating in the social contribution program run by Specified Nonprofit Corporation Table for Two International (TFT), through which the firm provides a menu of healthy food at its employee cafeteria located at the Hibiya head office, Toyosu head office, and Oi office in accordance with TFT guidelines.