New Year’s Message from the Chairperson for 2024
Hiroshi Shimizu
Chairperson
The Life Insurance Association of Japan (LIAJ)First, I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to the many people who lost their lives
in the recent 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, and my heart goes out to all those affectedby the disaster.
The life insurance industry will make its best efforts to reassure those affected by the disaster.
We are praying with all our hearts for everyone’s safety and a rapid recovery in the strickenarea.
Looking back on the last year, there were both positive and negative changes that affected
us significantly. Japanese society and economy made an advancement toward normalization,
following the reclassification of Covid-19 from Class 2 Infectious Diseases, which refers tonovel influenza and other disease categories, to Class 5 Infectious Diseases under theInfectious Diseases Control Law. On the other hand, we also experienced global instability,
such as the political unrest in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as the increasing inflation.
Even amid these drastic changes, life insurers have been committed to providing security
and better quality of life for citizens in the spirit of mutual aid. The life insurance industry is
striving to fulfil its mission of being the social foundation that complements the social security
system, offering insurance products and making payments of over ¥1.3 trillion on claims
totalling 11 million cases for hospitalization and other Covid-19 related benefits through a
network of over 240,000 direct salespersons and approximately 80,000 agencies nationwide.
The life insurance industry will further contribute to solving various social issues bymaintaining the trust with customers and serving the interests of society as a whole going
forward. With this in mind, we will continue to proceed with our proactive approach this year,
focusing on the following three pillars of action that I highlighted upon becoming chairperson
last July.

1. Promoting Our Customer-first Business Operations to Realize a “Safeand Secure Society”
To deliver a constant peace of mind to customers and to continue to serve the well-being ofsociety, the life insurance industry’s focus on promoting its “customer-first business
operations” in the utmost interest of customers is our top priority.
Accordingly, the LIAJ held a dialogue to exchange opinions and ideas among member
companies on “the viewpoints for the enhancement of the compliance risk management
structure related to the direct salesperson channel” last September. The LIAJ will hold
another dialogue again based on the results of a member company survey related to theirefforts which was conducted last October.
The LIAJ is also planning on publishing in late February the result of the sales agencies thatsatisfied all the basic criteria under the LIAJ’s Agency Operations Quality Review which is inits second year.
In addition, the LIAJ published a report last November on “the initiatives taken by the life
insurance industry against Covid-19 and passing down the lessons learned for the next
pandemic,” summarizing the efforts by the LIAJ and its member companies as to utilize thepandemic experience for the future.
Moreover, the LIAJ concluded “the comprehensive collaboration arrangement on insurance

education” with the General Insurance Association of Japan and the Japan Institute of Life
Insurance last November to cooperate and work together on insurance education that aimsto more effectively improve the financial literacy among citizens by emphasizing theimportance of “self-help” or individual awareness and preparation against risks.

2. Contributing to Solving Regional Societal Issues to Realize a “Society
Full of Hope”
Faced with the urgent challenge of the falling birth rate, we are seeking to contribute to themomentum of supporting childrearing throughout society by highlighting the initiatives takenby the LIAJ and its member companies responding to the falling birth rate, as well as reemphasizing the responsibility of the life insurance industry. We will also focus onchildrearing in local communities by developing guiding materials on topics related to raisingchildren and protecting children’s rights, as well as communicating our initiatives both within
and outside the industry. These initiatives will be published in April.
Furthermore, the LIAJ and its member companies have been proactively engaging inactivities contributing to local communities from the past. It will also revamp its website touniformly raise the visibility of these activities and the annual report in June as to enhance
the communication in an easy-to-understand way for the public.
In addition, amid the rapid progress of digitalization, we will compile a report as well as holdworkshops on advanced digital society to support member companies on digitaltransformation.

3. Contributing to Solving Global Environmental Issues to Realize a“Sustainable Society”
Given the importance of taking concrete actions, such as de-carbonization, is increasing torealize a sustainable society, we will continue to contribute to the improvement of investee
company’s corporate value and their sustainable economic growth through ESG
investment/financing and stewardship activities.
We also proactively communicated our industrywide efforts at international conferences suchas “PRI in Person 2023” and the IAIS annual conference, both of which took place in Tokyo
last year, as well as exchanged views and opinions among member companies to furtherenhance the efforts made by our member companies in this regard.
Furthermore, we will promote member company efforts by publishing two booklets in April on
global environmental issues. One will be the basic edition providing summaries and guidanceon fundamental environmental challenges, and the other will be the advanced edition
covering more specific and technical topics such as global initiatives and developments.
In addition to these three pillars of action, we will continue to foster an environment thatmaintains the trust of customers and ensures the sound development of the life insurance
industry. The life insurance industry will proactively communicate the expansion of the life
insurance premium tax deduction system and international and domestic financial regulations
to support and promote peoples’ efforts to obtain the various types of private insurance
coverage that they need.
Through these activities, we are committed to fulfilling the life insurance industry’s mission
toward realizing a sustainable society full of hope and security.
Finally, I would like to conclude my New Year message by wishing everyone a peaceful 2024.