Latest news with #SumitomoLifeInsurance
Japan Times
01-08-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan's Dai-ichi Life eyes M&A in Southeast Asia for growth
Dai-ichi Life Holdings is considering mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in Southeast Asia as part of its plan to expand overseas, eyeing a growing but increasingly crowded market. Japan's biggest listed life insurer is looking at the Philippines and Malaysia as emerging markets that offer business opportunities as more households ascend to middle class, said Brett Clark, senior managing executive officer in charge of the firm's Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan. Dai-ichi Life is also interested in expanding its customer base in Singapore, which has a lucrative market serving high net worth individuals but is also highly competitive, he said in an interview. "The whole of Asia Pacific is a competitive market and so we're not complacent,' Clark said. "We would prefer to avoid small and subscale positions in many markets and would rather have larger and scaled positions in fewer markets.' Major Japanese life insurers are seeking to expand profits from overseas operations, as a declining birth rate and an aging population in the home market limit potential for growth. But the biggest insurance markets in the United States and Europe are already crowded, and competition is heating up in Asia, particularly in developed economies like Singapore. Sumitomo Life Insurance, for one, boosted its presence in the city state in a big way last year, making Singapore Life a wholly owned subsidiary. Dai-ichi Life plans to generate about half of its group adjusted profit from overseas life insurance operations in the fiscal year ending March 2031, with half of that coming from the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan. The firm aims to increase profit from the region to ¥150 billion ($1 billion) from ¥57.6 billion over the period. Group adjusted profit is used to calculate shareholder returns, adjusting net income for accounting gains and losses. "If we could add an operating unit in Singapore or Malaysia or the Philippines, that would be ideal for us sometime over the next few years,' Clark said. Potential measures include investments in local insurers, and it's also considering asset management firms as M&A targets, he said. Dai-ichi Life already has operations in Australia, India and some Southeast Asian markets including Vietnam. Clark, in fact, was an executive at Tower Australia Group when Dai-ichi acquired it in 2011.
The Mainichi
29-04-2025
- Health
- The Mainichi
Lifestyle diseases raise heatstroke hospitalization risk by 2-5 times: Japan analysis
TOKYO -- People with lifestyle-related diseases risk hospitalization from heatstroke at a rate two to five times higher than those without such conditions, according to an analysis released this month by major Japan insurer Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. The finding comes as the risk of heatstroke continues to rise in Japan due to extreme heat associated with global warming. The company's "heatstroke white paper" found that heatstroke severity can differ by a person's health status. Sumitomo Life Insurance conducted the study with a firm handling big data from medical records of some 10 million people including health checkup data from health insurance associations. The relationship between heatstroke and health conditions identified in medical examinations was studied in the records for 2023 and 2024. The analysis found that those taking medication to lower blood pressure faced a 3.5-fold higher risk, individuals using diabetes medication had a 4.9 times higher risk and those on medication for lipid disorders such as high cholesterol were 2.2 times likelier to be hospitalized for heatstroke than individuals not taking these medications. Certain medications that increase fluid loss and lead to dehydration, as well as conditions like arterial sclerosis which worsen blood circulation and reduce the body's ability to dissipate heat, are thought to be among the major factors that heighten the risk of developing severe heatstroke. Additionally, it was found that people were more likely to be hospitalized or require intravenous fluids due to heatstroke if they ate dinner just before bedtime, lacked proper sleep, smoked or had gained 10 kilograms or more from age 20. Getting too little sleep is thought to affect the body's ability to regulate its temperature, while smoking is another major cause of reduced heat dissipation efficiency by worsening blood circulation. The summers of 2023 and 2024 were the hottest since the Japan Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1898. In the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's Vital Statistics, the number of deaths due to heatstroke in 2023 reached 1,651, amid a trend of temperatures hitting or exceeding 35 degrees Celsius in the daytime or remaining at or above 25 C overnight. Sumitomo Life Insurance's report stated, "A history of hypertension, diabetes or dyslipidemia may increase the risk of heatstroke. Lifestyle modifications are also important in heatstroke prevention," while recommending people do moderate exercise, improve their health and gradually get used to the heat.
