As any insurance agent will readily tell you, life is fragile. And it follows the demise of two other insurers, Daihyaku Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Taisho Life Insurance Co., so far this year.
Analysts say no, at least in terms of scale.
But just like Tokyo money-center banks, life and property insurers are grasping for survival strategies at a time when their balance sheets are ugly and foreign competitors are starting to make serious inroads into Japan. The proximate cause of death at Chiyoda was a dreaded financial ailment called negative yield spread. That's insurance jargon for a very simple problem. There is no way for smaller play- ers like Chiyoda, whose bankruptcy was announced by its president, Reiji Yoneyama, to survive the contagion. Right now, the biggest concern is that a couple of additional insurance company failures will trigger a vicious circle of policy cancellations, shrinking premium incomes, and market jitters that will push portfolio returns even lower.