Nippon Life : Everything you need to know

Nippon Life: Everything you need to know

About Nippon Life

Nippon Life Insurance Company, also referred to as Nissay, is Japan’s largest insurer in terms of assets and revenue, with more than 33 million policies in force as of 2021. The firm operates through over 1,000 branches, 1,530 sales offices, 17,495 agencies, and four global representative offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, London, and New York. The company operates as Nippon Life Benefits in the US, trading under the name of Nippon Life Insurance Company of America. Its asset management arm, Nissay Asset Management Corporation, has total assets under management (AUM) of US$280 billion as of March 2021.

Nippon Life offers a range of insurance products for individuals, namely: whole life, term life, diseases, physical disability, nursing care, general hospitalization, cancer medical, limited injury, annuity, endowment, fire, and automobile coverage. For corporates, it provides survivor, disability, medical, and retirement coverage, and various life plans.

Global businesses

Insurance

Nippon Life has seven insurance subsidiaries operating across various locations in the world. These are:

Asset management

Nippon Life has three asset management subsidiaries operating across various locations in the world. These are:

Brief history of Nippon Life

Nippon Life was founded as Nippon Life Assurance Co., Inc. in July 1889, changing its name to Nippon Life Assurance Co., Ltd in 1891. Its establishment coincided with the creation of a premium table based on unique Japanese mortality statistics. At the same time, Nippon Life

became the first Japanese life insurer to offer profit dividends to policyholders, which embodied the spirit of mutual aid. After its first major closing of books in 1898, Nippon Life paid the first policyholder dividends in Japan.

The company re-emerged as Nippon Life Insurance Company in 1947, after World War II. Nippon Life re-emerged as a mutual company, returning to the spirit of providing mutual aid and assistance as exemplified by being the first in the industry to pay policyholder dividends.

In 1988, Nippon Life adopted the name NISSAY to express its corporate approach symbolizing ‘newness’ and ‘communicating and proposing,’ and marking the shift to its new company charter.

From 2012 to 2014, in its ‘Return to Growth’ initiative under the Future Creation Project, the firm launched Mirai no Katachi and ‘REVO’ wireless devices with advanced functionality for sales representatives that have contributed to significant increases in new policy sales. In 2015, it started implementing its Zen Shin Management Plan with was aimed at promoting business growth by:

• Increasing profitability under an ultra-low interest rate environment
• Expanding the social roles of the Nippon Life Group
• Steadily expanding the profit of Group businesses

Leadership at Nippon Life

Hiroshi Shimizu – President

Shimizu was appointed president of Nippon Life in April 2018, the first licensed actuary to hold the post. He has also held several leadership roles within the company, including director and senior managing executive officer. Shimizu also serves as one of the directors of the Life Insurance Association of Japan (LIAJ).

Culture at Nippon Life

Nippon Life is proactively carrying out investment and financing aimed at achieving the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), with the assumption that “profitability will be secured.” In the implementation process, Nippon Life conducts monitoring activities such as confirming the use of funds.

Under the previous medium-term management plan (2017-2020), Nippon Life set a quantitative target for ESG-themed investment and finance of ¥700 billion and achieved the target around one year ahead of schedule. Under the current medium-term management plan (2021-2023), Nippon Life has newly set a target of ¥1,700 billion for the cumulative amount of investment and finance to be made since FY2017 and is working to achieve this target. Of this amount, Nippon Life has set aside ¥500 billion for a decarbonization financing facility that covers green finance, transition finance, and other initiatives from 2021 to 2023.

Because of its mission and the public nature of the life insurance business, Nippon Life prohibits investing in and financing companies that manufacture cluster munitions, biological weapons, anti-personnel landmines, and chemical weapons. In line with the growing international interest in climate change in response to initiatives such as the SDGs and Paris Agreement adopted by the United Nations, meanwhile, Nippon Life has also embraced a policy not to engage in new investment and financing in coal-fired power generation projects anywhere in Japan or overseas.