Three-way Discussion

Watanabe In Japan, our primary market, the low birthrate and population aging has produced a large imbalance between support providers and support recipients. The demand for nursing care services in particular is steadily increasing, and when we consider not only the age group that needs nursing care, but also the age group that may potentially need nursing care at any time, we are quickly approaching the era of 100 million people requiring nursing care.

In this environment, I want to create a society where people can think positively about living longer and aging by presenting unique solutions from Sompo to address the various concerns that arise from increased longevity, specifically the three concerns of health, nursing care, and post-retirement finances. That is our vision.

In addition to the customer base of each line of business, the Sompo Group has its domestic life insurance business that has been working to provide unique value through health support, and its nursing care business that has a strong business foundation, including know-how cultivated in providing nursing care services and an industry network. The goal is to leverage the unique strengths of the Sompo Group to address and resolve the “three concerns.”

Oba The demographic changes in Japan did not start just recently. Since 2016, Sompo Himawari Life has set out to transform itself into a health support company, and in addition to the traditional role of life insurance—preparing for the unexpected—it has aimed to help customers live long and healthy lives. To achieve this, Sompo Himawari Life identified the value of a new product combining the traditional insurance function with a healthcare function, Insurhealth^®, and has been offering it since 2018. As a result, cumulative sales of Insurhealth^® have reached 1.6 million, making it a growth driver for the Company. However, I believe that we have not yet achieved the transformation into a true health support company. We must further refine our current initiatives and become a true health support company that can make a significant contribution to eliminating the health concerns facing Japanese society. This is the vision we are aiming for in our mid-term management plan for Domestic Life Insurance Business.

Watanabe Domestic life insurance and nursing care are solid businesses within the Group, and the corporate wellness business, including health checkups for BtoBtoE^*, has also become a fairly substantial business. Until now, these businesses have developed independently and separately, but Sompo Wellbeing will focus on “Connect with customers and deliver connected services” as its key concept.

First, we will work on “connecting” the Group’s insurance, nursing care and other businesses. Our key focus is to ensure that the various health support services are tightly linked so that customers feel a sense of connection between the services. For example, we are working to provide a one-stop service that proposes health services to customers who have completed health checkups. We will also “connect” not only with our customers themselves, but also with their families—for example, with the children of users of nursing facilities. Moreover, we will digitize the actions of customers who have received our services, connect the data spanning across various Group companies, and build a single large database. We will then use this data to propose services. Ultimately, we will end up in a position to offer nursing care services. That is how I think about it.

The services of the RIZAP Group, with whom we signed a capital and business alliance agreement in June 2024, were a missing piece for us. Until now, the only approach we could take when providing health services were things like “Please exercise” or “Did you walk?” Now, however, we can make more specific suggestions like “Let’s exercise at chocoZAP.” I think the significance of obtaining this real service is huge.

In this way, we will build long-lasting, deep connections with our customers and their families by providing solutions that address the “three concerns” from the customer’s perspective, thereby sustainably expanding life time value (LTV) and contributing to the Group’s medium- to long-term growth. By accumulating these kinds of reinforcing cycles, we will raise awareness of us as a group that provides unique value and create a situation where the Sompo brand is chosen by customers.

Oba In SOMPO Wellbeing, Himawari Life Insurance will play an important role in demonstrating that customers actually become healthier. We also want to increase the number of so-called “Himawari clients/users,” that is, customers who identify with the value of both the insurance products and healthcare services that we provide as a health support company. These clients/users will not only serve as a customer base for wellbeing initiatives, but also play a role in connecting with customers and acquiring and accumulating health-related data.

By encouraging our currently over 5 million Himawari clients/users to take advantage of the health support features of our insurance products or healthcare services, we hope to increase the number of customers who have taken steps to change their behavior toward better health (healthy behaviors) to 550,000 by fiscal year 2026.

What we are currently discussing is how to provide optimal services to our 550,000 core customers. Among these 550,000 customers, there will be a certain number who will enter nursing care facilities themselves or whose family members will require nursing care, and some of them will become more interested in healthcare services or consider purchasing P&C insurance. For example, we will establish firm connections to those who are ready to enter a nursing facility. For those who want to exercise, we will recommend chocoZAP. If you tell us you want to prepare for dementia, we will refer you to services that meet your needs. Furthermore, we are considering establishing a points program that would allow customers to use the Group’s services to accumulate points and pay for various services using these points. We want to create a universe in which our customers can feel this level of comfort—to provide value that is similar to the comfort felt by regular customers who go to a familiar restaurant and get their favorite food right away.

Regarding data, Insurhealth^® accumulates data on various health activities, and when such individuals enter nursing facilities or receive healthcare services, we can refer to that data to make them feel that we understand them well. We can greet them like a regular customer instead of with a “nice to meet you.” I believe this will be an essential element of the “Connect with customers and deliver connected services” concept.

Watanabe During the period of this mid-term management plan, I would like to start by further strengthening connections among the Group’s businesses—for example corporate wellness including life insurance, nursing care, health checkups, and mental health services—and by fleshing out as many of the strengths and diverse ideas of each line of business as possible.

Regarding points of contact with customers, we will create a system that can deliver services online and offline regardless of location. As a first step, we will open three consultation desks to address the “three concerns” centering on nursing care by the end of the fiscal year. I would like to expand our points of contact with customers to include connections with their families and establish channels for delivering value that combines insurance and related services. I would also like to analyze the accumulated health behavior data to make predictions about nursing care and funding needs, and use this to encourage behavioral changes in customers.

I would like to continue creating new services in an agile manner while conducting various proof-of-concept experiments. If there are any missing pieces that the Group does not have, we will actively consider adding services through M&A, capital alliances, and so on. For example, with regard to concern about post-retirement finances, we have no adequate solutions at present, so I think this is one of the areas to be examined.

To make this vision a reality, I would like to ask both of you, Mr. Oba and Mr. Washimi, to spend the next three years continuing to hone Sompo's strengths. For my part, I will work hard to make the big picture I mentioned earlier more concrete, and to build a business foundation for Sompo Wellbeing, such as enhancing customer contact points, accumulating data, and creating a system for proposing services based on changes in customer behavior.