Japan Major Life Insurers' Oper Pfts Fall Sharply In FY08

[Coventina]

Source: Wall Street Journal

TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Combined earnings at Japan's six major life insurance companies shrank sharply during the fiscal year that ended in March, showing that the decline in values of their securities holdings are threatening their financial health.

The combined operating earnings at Nippon Life Insurance Co. (NLY.YY), Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co (DIM.YY), Meiji-Yasuda Life Insurance Co. (MYLIFE.YY), Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. (SLI.YY), Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co. (AML.YY) and Mitsui Life Insurance Co. (MLI.YY) totaled 4 billion yen (about US$40 million) in fiscal 2008. That compares with a combined operating profit of Y878.39 billion a year earlier.

The sharp decline is largely due to a fall in stock prices. To minimize fluctuations in value, Japanese life insurers have been recently rushing to sell riskier assets.

Among the six firms, Mitsui Life posted an operating loss of Y257.4 billion, while Asahi Mutual Life reported an operating loss of Y182.0 billion. Meanwhile, Nippon Life, Japan's largest insurer by assets, reported the largest operating profit of Y119.2 billion, followed by Meiji Yasuda with an operating profit of Y111.4 billion.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090529-705116.html

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I just had to post this story in light of the article I posted yesterday about the sharp rise in Japanese suicides.

I know this article says it's due to falling stock prices, not more payouts. But there was just a wierd symmetry to the two articles I couldn't resist....