Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. has inappropriately distributed personal data on about 33,000 people whose life insurance policies were seized to pay off debts.
Sumitomo Life provided the people's home addresses and telephone numbers to government bodies, financial institutions and other creditors, it said Thursday.
Of the 32,903 cases, personal data on 32,369 policyholders, or 98 percent of the total, were given to government bodies, the insurer said.
Sumitomo Life vaguely said the data were released because the company used forms designed to process claims and for other procedures when handling the seized policies.