The head of Japan's nonlife insurance industry association denied accusations Thursday that the recent payout failure scandal had stemmed from structural problems within the industry.
Tadashi Kodama was commenting in the wake of revelations that several nonlife insurers -- at least 14 so far -- had been involved in payout failures worth more than 5 billion yen. In fact, 19 nonlife insurance companies have owned up to payout failures, though five have not yet disclosed specific figures.
Asked if the industry has structural problems that lead to such failures, Kodama, chairman of the General Insurance Association of Japan and president of Aioi Insurance Co., said: "It is not true. It happened due to a layer of special mistakes in each case."