Group CEO Message

Our ambition at Sompo Group is to be a truly global company that delivers the unique value of our Japanese heritage in meeting the ever-changing needs of our global customers and stakeholders.

At the heart of this ambition is the altruistic spirit we nurture as a company born from meeting the needs of Japanese society in its early modern era. From a history of delivering protection against the risks of fire and natural disaster, we naturally progressed to envisioning how we might enable society to enjoy a future of health, wellbeing and financial protection. Leveraging these strengths, we seek to provide optimal risk solutions that meet the changing needs of customers at a global level as risks become increasingly varied and complex, from natural disaster to the impacts of new, geopolitical events.

Our Purpose prioritizing health, wellbeing and financial protection, creates opportunities for everyone we serve, from individuals to enterprises. Instilling our Purpose among our employees leads to a unified determination to realize these aspirations through our values (integrity, self-motivation, and diversity) for all our stakeholders and drive our role in society.

In Japan, for example, our vision is realized through our commitment to provide disaster prevention and risk-mitigation solutions, bringing ease of mind within a country exposed to natural disasters. Our vision is also driving our solutions to the social challenges and anxieties emerging from rapid, unstoppable demographic change.

To address the challenges we identify, our Medium-Term Management Plan (MTMP) since fiscal 2021 has sought to follow three core strategies: scale and diversification, New Customer Value creation and New Work Style. Each has delivered, with the growth of our global business, the development of our integrated Insurhealth^® service combining insurance and health support functions, and our highly productive, quality care services. Together, they have driven our adjusted consolidated profit to a record high of 291.0 billion yen, alongside an adjusted consolidated ROE of 9.2% (10.1% when the impact of financial market fluctuations and other factors were taken into account).

In our latest MTMP launched in fiscal 2024, we build on these achievements. While our domestic P&C is undergoing reforms to address a number of issues, our overseas insurance business is driving the growth and expansion of the Group. In the medium- to long-term, our Wellbeing business is positioning itself to deliver our growth, all while we further increase our resilience, and connect with customers and deliver connected services.

Our global insurance business is a key growth driver of the Group. We are strategically expanding our business geographically in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia based on a disciplined approach to underwriting for further profit growth. We are seeking connections between the global business and our domestic P&C business, Sompo Japan, which is reforming its business and earnings base to respond to social changes and industry practices.

These two businesses play a central role in the Group by building a foundation that enables us to provide solutions in times of high uncertainty, and by increasing our resilience. Their joint collaboration and pursuit of economies of scale as “Sompo P&C” aim to establish our firm position as a global non-life insurance company that can respond to changes in the market environment, customer needs and to risk. By focusing on building an organization and operations that leverage our high level of expertise in commercial lines while utilizing our high efficiency in the retail field, we are pursuing “Centers of Excellence” that consolidate our knowledge and experience in each country and region. Each is built on an optimal portfolio and established on best practices in underwriting, reinsurance, asset management and other spheres, further increasing our resilience.

Sompo Wellbeing aims to extend healthy life expectancy by accurately understanding the needs of customers at each life stage, and delivering the solutions to meet them. To deliver this “Life Time Value”, the business seeks to address the social challenges of health, nursing care and financial planning for retirement, so that society views aging in a more positive light. It utilizes the data obtained through delivery of the Group’s services, to support extension of healthy life expectancy and provision of high quality, efficient nursing care services. And, by also connecting these services with insurance, it can further enhance the value of its insurance products.

The diversification of customer needs in Japan and greater uncertainties caused by the increased uncertainty in our operating environment, have brought to the surface the inflexibility of the insurance industry to break-away from established business models and structures. A series of incidents in Japan have further highlighted the need at Sompo for employees representing a diversity of experience and views to be able to understand changing societal and customer needs, and drive the new ideas, models and work styles that achieve change. These challenges facing our domestic P&C business are also a driver for the growth of our corporate culture. Accordingly, our domestic P&C unit is reforming itself and its business under its SJ-R initiative to become a “new Sompo Japan Insurance Inc.”

To build our future on the trust of all our stakeholders, we must break-away from outmoded standards, question the status quo, and accurately identify trends and issues. By creating a corporate culture that is positive about change and the power of change, we can create and provide the solutions that deliver new value and reflect our transformation as a truly global company. A corporate culture in which opinions can be freely exchanged and accepted is the key to creating this new value in a transformed and truly global Sompo.

By facing up to what we need to do and acting through delivery of solid and stable solutions to the global challenges of climate change, geopolitical risk and other factors, we are building the trust of our stakeholders. Now is the moment in which we can demonstrate the value of our Purpose to prioritize the health, wellbeing and financial protection of society.