Latest Japan Headlines

All the headlines from our Japan Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Japan’s MS&AD to Invest $1B in Swiss Re’s UK Unit, ReAssure Jersey One

Oct 6 2017 // Japan’s MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc said on Friday it had agreed with Swiss Re AG to invest 800 million pounds ($1.05 billion) to take a stake of up to 15 percent in UK-based ReAssure Jersey One...

Nippon Life Eyes Buying MassMutual Japan Unit for Bancassurance Sales: Sources

Oct 5 2017 // Japan’s biggest private-sector life insurer, Nippon Life Insurance Co., is in talks to buy a majority stake in the domestic unit of U.S.-based MassMutual Financial Group in an attempt to boost its bancassurance...

Japan Court Rules Tepco, not Government, Must Pay $3.4M to Ex-Fukushima Residents

Sep 27 2017 // A Japanese court ruled Friday [Sept. 22] that a utility, not the government, should pay compensation to dozens of former residents of Fukushima for losses to their livelihood caused by reactor meltdowns at a nuclear plant...

Japan Post’s Stock Sale Raises $11B, but Demand Is Subdued

Sep 25 2017 // A government sale of Japan Post Holdings Co. stock raised $11 billion in the world’s second-biggest share sale this year, with the postal and financial giant’s attractive dividend yield helping drum up...

Japan Post Plans $9.1B-$12.8B Share Sale as Early as Sept. 11

Sep 5 2017 // Japan Post Holdings Co. will announce plans for a share sale by the government as early as Sept. 11, almost two years after the postal and financial-services giant was listed, people with knowledge of the matter said. The...

Japan’s Sompo Holdings to Sell Sompo Canopius for $952M to Centerbridge

Sep 1 2017 // Japan’s Sompo Holdings Inc. announced it has agreed to sell Lloyd’s re/insurer Sompo Canopius AG to a private equity consortium led by Centerbridge Partners for $952 million. On completion of the purchase,...

Japan Government Plans to Sell Shares in Bancassurer Japan Post

Sep 1 2017 // Japan’s government plans to sell shares in Japan Post Holdings Co. as soon as this month, the first sale since the company’s massive 2015 listing, a government source familiar with the deal said on Friday. The...

Mitsui Sumitomo Buys Singapore’s First Capital Insurance from Fairfax for $1.6B

Aug 24 2017 // Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company (MSI) is acquiring Singapore’s First Capital Insurance for $1.6 billion from Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings, in the biggest takeover by a Japanese insurer in populous...

China’s Move to Curb Overseas Deals Designed to Avoid Japan-Style Bust

Aug 3 2017 // President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser commissioned a study earlier this year to see how China could avoid the fate of Japan’s epic bust in the 1990s and decades of stagnation that followed. The report...

Weakening Typhoon Noru Could Hit Japan This Weekend

Aug 2 2017 // A typhoon that briefly strengthened into the Northern Hemisphere’s strongest storm of the year has lost much of its punch but could still hit Japan by this weekend. Typhoon Noru was packing maximum sustained winds of...

RMS Launches New Models for Tropical Cyclone & Earthquake in Asia Pacific

Jul 12 2017 // RMS, the Newark, Calif.-based risk modeling and analytics firm, has introduced typhoon models for wind and flood for South Korea and Taiwan, plus four new earthquake models for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and...

Takata Bankruptcy Filing Could Happen Next Week in Japan

Jun 16 2017 // Takata Corp. plans to file for bankruptcy as soon as next week, paving the way for a sale of the 84-year-old Japanese air-bag maker behind the biggest safety recall in automotive history. The supplier is expected to seek...

Japan Readies Strategy for Drones, Autonomous Vehicles

May 30 2017 // Japan aims to finalize on June 9 plans to allow package delivery by drone sometime from 2020 and the commercialization of self-driving trucks by 2022, as it scrambles to breathe new life into its corporate sector, sources...

A.M. Best Places Ratings of Sompo Japan Canopius Re Under Review

May 23 2017 // A.M. Best has placed under review with developing implications the financial strength rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a+” of Zurich-based Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance...

AIG Completes Sale of Japanese Life Unit to FWD Group

May 2 2017 // American International Group announced it has successfully completed the sale of AIG Fuji Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (AFLI) to FWD Group, the insurance arm of Pacific Century Group. The terms of the deal, which was originally...

Hackers Target Japan’s Mobile Gamers to Access Their Employers’ Data

Apr 18 2017 // Gamers beware: hackers offering free virtual trinkets don’t care about your passwords or personal data, but your employer’s most closely guarded secrets. An employee at a Japanese high-tech company learned this...

Trov in California Closes $45M in Series D Financing for Insurtech

Apr 6 2017 // San Francisco, Calif.-based Trov announced that it has closed $45 million in Series D funding led by Munich Re/HSB Ventures, bringing its total funding to just over $85 million. All of Trov’s Series C investors...

On-Demand Insurance App Trov Grabs $45M Led by Munich Re/HSB Ventures

Apr 6 2017 // On-demand insurance provider Trov has $45 million in new capital to expand its operations, thanks to a Series D funding round led by Munich Re / HSB Ventures. The round brings Trov’s total funding to just over $85...

China’s Ping An to Invest $100M a Year in Japan in Diversification Bid

Mar 27 2017 // Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. plans to invest $100 million a year in Japanese companies as it seeks to diversify its investments outside of China. China’s second-largest insurer will put money with private equity...

Tepco & Japan Government Held Liable Over Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Mar 17 2017 // A court in Japan on Friday ruled that Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) and the government are liable for negligence in a case involving compensation for the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the first time the judiciary has ruled...