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July 02, 2026
 

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Nao Sano
Nippon Life Insurance, Japan’s largest life insurer, wrote down ¥70 billion ($440 million) in the year ended March 31.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 26, 2026
Nippon Life books its first impairment loss in current bond rout
Nippon Life Insurance, Japan’s largest life insurer, wrote down ¥70 billion ($440 million) in the year ended March 31.
Daiichi Life Group believes strict selection of managers and risk management after making private credit investments are key.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2026
Daiichi Life to tighten private credit manager selection on risk
Bankruptcies of corporate borrowers in the U.S. have fueled concern about putting cash in the market, and the worries are starting to affect Japanese firms’ investment decisions.
Yuri Okina, tapped to lead the Government Pension Investment Fund’s key management committee, left the Bank of Japan for the Japan Research Institute in 1992 and earned a doctorate in economics from Kyoto University in 2011.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2026
Female economist to lead key panel at Japan’s GPIF in a first
Yuri Okina will start her five-year term as the chair of the GPIF’s 10-person management committee panel on April 1.
Berkshire Hathaway's investment in Tokio Marine Holdings underscores the company's growing ambitions in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 24, 2026
Berkshire Hathaway to invest $1.8 billion in Tokio Marine
National Indemnity Company, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, will make a 2.49% strategic investment in Tokio Marine, underscoring Berkshire’s growing ambitions in Japan.
Sumitomo Life Insurance’s headquarters in Osaka
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 18, 2026
Sumitomo Life plans to invest $1.9 billion in private credit
The Osaka-based insurer has been gradually increasing its private credit holdings.
The Nippon Life Insurance headquarters in Osaka. Japan's major life insurers are continuing plans to increase private credit investment in the next fiscal year from April.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 12, 2026
Japan insurers still keen on private debt amid growing red flags
Life insurance companies have joined global investors in a private debt market binge in search of higher yields.
Former Government Pension Investment Fund President Masataka Miyazono joined Hulic last year as an adviser to focus on agricultural investments as the sector faces a rapidly aging and shrinking workforce.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2026
Former chief of $2 trillion pension fund joins developer growing tomatoes
Masataka Miyazono aims to help make Japan’s agricultural sector more productive in order to boost sustainability in the country.
Japan Post Insurance CEO and President Kunio Tanigaki
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2026
Japan Post Insurance to shift to high-yield bonds, CEO says
The life insurer expects the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates again as soon as April.
The country’s biggest insurers are sitting on swelling paper losses on their holdings of Japanese government bonds, which have slumped as the central bank raises interest rates.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 18, 2026
Accounting group seeks to ease rules on Japanese insurers’ bond losses
Bonds held by life insurers to match long-term policies would be treated as held to maturity if certain conditions are met, and would not be subject to impairment accounting.
There have been a series of insider trading cases in Japan in recent years involving employees across the financial industry.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2026
Mizuho Securities reportedly faces probe for insider trading
The revelations are the latest to potentially undermine confidence in Japan’s financial industry at a time when the stock market is booming.
Expectations Japan's superlong bond yields will rise further as the government boosts spending have kept life insurers away from bond buying.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2026
Japan’s midsize insurers hold back from bond buys anticipating rebound
The bonds are usually major investment targets to match insurers’ long-term liabilities, but expectations yields will rise further amid government spending have slowed buying.
Sompo Holdings intends to “invest broadly in credit assets that offer high profitability and different risk-return characteristics,” the general manager of Sompo’s investment management department said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 9, 2026
Japanese insurer Sompo to ramp up overseas credit investments
The Tokyo-based company moved several investment managers from its Japan insurance subsidiary to work in the U.S. from this month.
Nippon Life Insurance President Satoshi Asahi says the firm is always looking at further acquisition opportunities, particularly in the United States.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 22, 2025
Nippon Life seeking overseas acquisitions and watching bond yields
Japanese financial firms have been aggressively making acquisitions abroad to make up for a lack of growth prospects at home.
Nomura Asset Management President Hiroyasu Koike says expanding staff with overseas business experience will strengthen the firm’s position as a global asset-managing competitor.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 9, 2025
Nomura sends bankers to New York and London in asset manager push
More staff with overseas business experience will boost Nomura’s stance as a global competitor in asset management, company president Hiroyasu Koike said.
Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management, a unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, aims to launch a new fund in January with a size of several billion yen.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 13, 2025
MUFG’s asset manager targets Japan buyers for its first CLO fund
The securities, which are bundled leveraged debt, will mainly hold dollar-denominated floating-rate loans made to U.S. companies.
Nomura Asset Management has formed a team made up of retired workers to help clients invest their pension funds.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 21, 2025
Nomura Asset’s new retirement solutions team consists of retirees themselves
Team leader Koji Nakamura says having employees who have actually experienced retirement allows the asset manager to better identify customer needs.
Takahiro Kobayashi, the new CEO of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management, says the firm is aiming to become one of the top three managers of Japanese mutual funds.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 14, 2025
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust’s fund manager targets top-three ranking
The firm is shooting for the higher ranking by driving up two of its funds’ total assets to more than ¥1 trillion each.
Government Pension Investment Fund President Kazuto Uchida has said that an investment approach targeting environmental and social goals ultimately leads to economic and capital markets growth.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 6, 2025
World’s biggest pension fund puts impact investing on the agenda
In Japan, impact investing strategies are likely to center around climate, health care, wellbeing and inclusivity.
Sumitomo Life is pledging not to sell its debt assets at a loss, in a rare move to avoid booking valuation losses, a source said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 3, 2025
Sumitomo Life takes unusual step to avoid marking JGB losses
The Osaka-based firm, one of Japan’s top-four life insurers, is taking advantage of guidelines for bond investors when prices move sharply.
The Government Pension Investment Fund is picking alternative asset funds in Japan on its own, in a shift from its previous practice of entrusting asset managers to choose on its behalf.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 17, 2025
GPIF bets on property and infrastructure in Japan, in alternative asset first
Pension funds around the world are seeking extra yields from alternative assets like private equity and real estate, but the yields reflect elevated risks in other areas.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
India’s gig workers pay the price for exposure to New Delhi’s hazardous air
Rohit Kushwaha waits for a customer as he delivers his last parcel of the day, in New Delhi in January. His work as a delivery driver has helped pay the family’s bills, but has had a significant impact on his health.
Reform panel calls for easing data center building standards
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi emphasized that the government will promote reforms of regulations and systems that fit the artificial intelligence era.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
A French ship with close ties to Japan combines arts and sciences on the high seas
Romain Troublé, the executive director of Tara Ocean Foundation, speaks to visitors aboard the Tara during a rare port call in Tokyo in April.
In Kyushu’s far south, Senti.U sparks a culinary destination
Chef Yasuhiko Uchida was born in Saga Prefecture but has made his home in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, since 2012.

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