Name
Global FinTech Guide
Country _ Name
Japan
SectionTitle
InsurTech
Body
InsurTech is composed of the words “insurance” and “technology”. It is used as a collective term for the application of modern technologies in the domain of insurance services.

Digital and mobile brokers: FinTechs belonging to this category mostly act as digital insurance brokers and provide users with an overview of their insurance contracts with their respective conditions. Some FinTechs offer very short-term insurance contracts to cover specific cases which can be concluded often spontaneously via mobile devices. Oftentimes additional consulting services are offered.

Internet of things: FinTechs belonging to this category collect data by measuring for example the driving style of the customers or through wearables the customers wear to consult on, offer and/or manage the customer’s insurances.

Introduction

Attitude of the country towards InsurTech-services

InsurTech is a growth field in Japan similar to other FinTech services, and the government is supportive of its development. For example, in 2019, the Financial Services Agency loosened regulations and allowed insurance companies to have IT companies as wholly owned subsidiaries. That being said, the general consensus is that the Japanese market is two years behind the foreign market, and there is an ample room for startups or foreign companies to enter the Japanese market, which is open to foreign companies.  In fact, a lot of foreign companies are recently playing important roles in the Japanese market (for more details, please see “f. Market size for InsurTech-services and biggest companies in this business area,” below).


Legal affairs

Obligations and requirements to provide InsurTech-services

No license is required if the business is providing information about potential clients to insurance agencies. However, if the business is engaged as an insurance solicitor then registration is required, although this registration is not very difficult to obtain.

The portion of FinTech business underwriting insurance, such as providing very short-term insurance using mobile devices, typically falls under the "hard” regulation of insurance underwriting; however, there is a category called "Small and Short-Term Insurance Business". This category has more relaxed registration requirements, such as a JPY 10 million minimum capitalization requirement (The minimum capitalization requirement for a regular insurance business is JPY 1 billion.) The Small and Short-Term Insurance Business is for underwriting small and short-term policies less than JPY 3,000,000 for life insurance, JPY 800,000 for health insurance, or JPY 10,000,000 for damage insurance.

The data collection using IoT is under regulation by the protection of personal information defined in guidelines published by the Personal Information Protection Commission and Financial Service Agency (FSA). The practical difficulty of complying with this regulation is not high.

Additional comments regarding the legal situation for InsurTech-services or what InsurTech’s must be aware of in this business area

N/A


Economic conditions

Market size for InsurTech-services and biggest companies in this business area
According to private research made public in 2022, the InsurTech services market in Japan was expected to be about JPY 247 billion in 2022 and JPY 318 billion in 2024.
Although there is no reliable statistical data about the relevant market share, the list of major companies are as follows:
Note: (*) denotes foreign companies
Insurance Soliciting
B to C
Warrantee, Frich, inSharerance, INSUR DUO (*), sasuke, Wizleap, finplanet, MILIZE, WDC, justInCase, Sompo, Lifenet Life Insurance
B to B
hokan, seimei, simplesurance (*), COVER GENIUS (*), unqork (*), PROTOSURE (*), boltech (*), kiva

Contract Management
iChain, FINATEXT, justInCaseTechnologies, INSTANDA (*), ZA Tech (*), eBaoTech (*)

Pricing/Product Development
coherent (*), AKUR8 (*), dacadoo (*)

Insurance Claim
IB inc., ANIPOS, EasySend (*), Shift (*), Tractable (*)

Additional comments regarding the economic situation for InsurTech-services or what InsurTech’s must be aware of in this business area

N/A



Authors

Close

Choose country