Japan: Insurers increase premium rates
    
        
            
                
            Source: Asia Insurance Review | Dec 2019
         
     
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Japan’s four largest non-life insurers will raise premiums on fire insurance policies by about 4%, with the increase to take effect as early as January 2021. The policies cover fire, flood and wind damage.
 
The planned increase was announced just a month after a previous rate hike, Nikkei reported. This is because of a series of destructive typhoons like Faxai and Hagibis lashing the country.
 
The four companies - Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance – follow the calculations of the General Insurance Rating Organization, which works out the reference rates used in setting premiums, the report said.
 
Moody’s Japan VP-senior analyst Soichiro Makimoto said that it will take time for the insurers’ fire insurance lines to return to profitability on a sustained basis. A