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May 02, 2024
 

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INSURANCE

Whistleblower reports on Bigmotor's fraudulent activities prompted Sompo Japan and two other major nonlife insurers to suspend customer referrals to Bigmotor in June last year, but Sompo Japan soon resumed the referrals.
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2023
Panel raps Sompo Japan's resumption of business with Bigmotor
The report said the resumption of business was caused by concerns among Sompo Japan execs about possibly losing deals with Bigmotor to rivals.
Financial Services Agency officials enter Bigmotor's Tama outlet in western Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2023
Watchdog starts on-site probe of Bigmotor and Sompo Japan
The investigation aims to dig deeper into the insurance fraud scandal by the leading used-car dealer. The probe is likely to take several months.
Sompo Japan Insurance President Giichi Shirakawa apologizes during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 8, 2023
Sompo Japan president to resign for Bigmotor insurance fraud scandal
The insurer's close relationship with the used car dealership has come under scrutiny since the firm was found to have made fraudulent insurance claims.
New president of Johnny & Associates Noriyuki Higashiyama (left) and Julie Keiko Fujishima, who stepped down as president, take questions from the media during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2023
Tokio Marine considers ending ad contract with Johnny's
Tokio Marine has been using Masaki Aiba, a Johnny's personality, in its advertisements since January 2022.
Bigmotor, embroiled in a scandal over excessive repair fees and auto insurance fraud, may have forced its subcontractors to lower prices and have their company vehicles undergo periodic inspections at its workshops, according to sources.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 2, 2023
Japan fair trade body probes scandal-hit Bigmotor over subcontracts
The company may have forced its subcontractors to lower prices and have their company vehicles undergo periodic inspections at its workshops.
Load and haul operations at Thungela's thermal coal mining operation, Isibonelo Colliery (formerly Anglo American), in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, in March 2019
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 1, 2023
Coal miners forced to insure themselves amid climate concerns
Dozens of insurers have announced restrictions on their cover for the coal industry, particularly for new projects
A reader for My Number cards doubling as health insurance cards is set up at a clinic in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, this month.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 25, 2023
Linkage of My Number and insurance cards faces delays
A survey found that the linkage work was incomplete for 770,000 people across the country for whom the process was underway.
Novo Nordisk' anti-obesity drug Wegovy
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2023
Insurers can’t avoid covering weight-loss drugs forever
Evidence is mounting that drugs like Wegovy not only help patients lose weight but also help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Nippon Life Insurance headquarters in Osaka. Japanese insurers are seeking more investments in private credit, attracted to their floating interest rates as global borrowing costs jump.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 18, 2023
Private credit boom attracts Japan insurers with $2.6 trillion
Dai-ichi Life Insurance and Nippon Life Insurance are among companies that are seeking more investments in private credit.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (left) and Digital Minister Taro Kono observe digitized administrative procedures in the city of Fukuoka on July 27.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 8, 2023
My Number report highlights errors by insurers and local governments
Roughly 20% of surveyed local governments followed the wrong procedures when linking My Number with disability records.
The Financial Services Agency's headquarters in Tokyo. The agency is expected to order four major insurers to submit records of contracts for which they allegedly arranged premium levels to avoid competition.
BUSINESS
Aug 3, 2023
Japan insurers suspected of price-fixing for corporate contracts
Dozens of suspected price-fixing cases surfaced after employees were asked to report suspected antitrust business activities.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a meeting of the government and ruling parties held at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Tuesday. The My Number system was among the issues discussed at the meeting.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2023
41% of local leaders seek delay to My Number card plans
The results come following a spate of personal data security errors in the My Number system.
Transport ministry officials leave a Bigmotor dealership in Nagoya on Friday after conducting on-site inspections.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 31, 2023
Bigmotor suspected of fabricating insurance contracts
The news came on top of an investigation report that showed employees padded maintenance fee claims to insurance firms by deliberately damaging cars.
Bigmotor's cozy relations with insurers have come to light in the wake of its scandal over fraudulent auto insurance claims.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 27, 2023
Repair fraud scandal spotlights cozy ties between Bigmotor and insurers
Japanese used car dealer Bigmotor's scandal over fraudulent auto insurance claims has spotlighted its cozy relations with major insurers.
The expansionist era is over for Taiwan's life insurance industry.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2023
U.S. interest rate hikes haunt Taiwan’s $1 trillion life insurance industry
Over the past year, local regulators have repeatedly loosened operating rules after a cocktail of unrealized investment losses.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 8, 2023
Is space the final frontier of extreme travel insurance?
Last year, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance said they would jointly develop space insurance offerings.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2023
Japan aims to fix medical fee errors linked to My Number by August
System errors over the use of My Number cards as health insurance certificates have caused many patients to have to pay the full amount of medical costs out of their own pocket.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2023
Public opposition grows over My Number and health insurance merger
Resistance to the integration of the two cards has been driven by reports of errors and privacy breaches when the cards have been linked.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 1, 2023
Sky-high hedging costs push biggest Japanese insurers to riskier avenues
Currency swaps protected more than 11% of overseas securities owned at the end of the fiscal year to March, according to earnings reports from nine of the largest life insurance companies.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 21, 2023
Heat insurance offers climate change lifeline to poor workers
This form of disaster assistance is on the rise across the developing world, as vulnerable communities are hammered by worsening drought, storms and heat waves.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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