Customer-Oriented Business Operations and Sustainability Management
July 4, 2023 marks the 135th year since our establishment.
Life insurance is a coverage mechanism through mutual aid based on the philosophy of "co-existence, co-prosperity, and mutualism." Since our establishment, we have been practicing "customer-oriented business operations" and "sustainability management," and have positioned these as the basic principles of our business management. Going forward, we intend to actualize our customer-oriented philosophy by making policyholder interests a top priority in whatever business we do.
We are engaging in sustainability management across the Group with an emphasis on the three areas of "People," "Community," and "Environment," with the aim of achieving sustainability in each of these areas and creating a future where all people can live happy lives.
In doing so, in addition to increasing visibility of the degree to which we contributed to improving sustainability, that is, outcomes, we hope to link those outcomes to the work of each individual executive and employee such that the 90,000 members of the Group collectively work as one in contributing to sustainability.
Three Key Areas for Sustainability Management
In order to improve sustainability in the area of "People," Nippon Life provides life insurance, asset management, and health care services from the standpoints of providing reassurance and security for life, nurturing a future generation filled with hope, and respecting DE&I and human rights.
Since Nippon Life's establishment, we have provided reassurance and security to customers across Japan by hiring people from local communities as sales representatives to sell life insurance to other residents of those communities, as well as thoroughly following up on customers after they become policyholders.
The Group currently includes five primary domestic insurers centered on Nippon Life. We are working to meet the diverse needs of our customers by selling a variety of products offered in the lineups of each of these companies through our sales representative channel, financial institutions and other agencies, direct channel (mail-order/online), and others.
For asset management, alongside endeavoring to enhance the asset management functions incorporated into our life insurance products, we offer various kinds of investment products, such as annuity management, through Nissay Asset Management. Additionally, in our capacity as an institutional investor, we are encouraging the enhancement of corporate value at investee and borrower companies and supporting initiatives for respecting human rights and women's empowerment, among other efforts, through ESG-themed investment and finance and dialogue (engagement).
In the area of healthcare, while life insurance as a product is beneficial when risk arises, healthcare including disease prevention is a service that reduces risk itself. Firm in our belief that offering both leads to further reassurance and security for our customers, we are engaging in the likes of data analysis services and diabetes prevention programs.
In order to improve the sustainability of "Community," we are tackling health improvement and economic revitalization from the standpoint of contributing to the vitality and sustainable development of regions across Japan.
The 50,000 sales representatives working at the approximately 100 branches nationwide collaborate with local governments and other entities in each community to carry out Cancer Screening Awareness Campaigns targeted at the residents of those communities. Through enhancing cancer screening uptake rates, we aim to improve health in local communities. At the same time, we expect that this will increase job motivation among sales representatives, as they can truly see that they are making a difference in serving their communities and can take pride in their work.
Additionally, through efforts such as mediating business matching between companies, we intend to contribute to the development of local companies and the promotion of regional economies.
In order to improve the sustainability of "Environment," on which the survival of all lifeforms including mankind depends, we are pushing forward with initiatives to keep the global environment in a state of abundance and develop it further, so that it continues into the future. One of those initiatives is the achievement of net zero emissions of greenhouse gases in fiscal 2050, which we have been working toward from both positions of business operator and institutional investor.
As a business operator, we are steadily pursuing initiatives for transitioning to EVs, promoting energy-saving at sales offices and buildings we own, going paperless, and more.
Furthermore, strongly self-aware of our considerable role and serious responsibility as one of Japan's largest institutional investors, we encourage investee and borrower companies to respond to climate change and provide support for that response through dialogues and the provision of decarbonization financing.
In addition, we are also actively involved in international initiatives addressing climate change such as the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) and UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) through our personnel, who act in the capacity of director or other key posts. This fiscal year, Nippon Life was selected as the lead sponsor for the annual conference, PRI in Person, which will be held in Japan in 2023. As this selection made us to become both the first life insurance company and asset owner in the world to engage in this role, we see this as a great opportunity that will lead to the expansion of ESG investment and finance globally.