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Japan's top three non-life insurers - MS&AD Insurance Group
Holdings <8725.T>, Sompo Holdings <8630.T> and Tokio Marine
Holdings <8766.T> - said on Tuesday that insurance payments for
damages from two recent strong typhoons will reach a combined
868.8 billion yen ($8 billion).
That followed a hefty 1.5 trillion yen in insurance payments in
the previous year, when torrential rain in western Japan led to
severe flooding and landslides that killed more than 200 people
in the country's deadliest weather disaster in 36 years.
Sompo Holdings downgraded its net profit estimate for the
current fiscal year to 118 billion yen, down 19.5% from the
previous year and a turnaround from an initial estimate of a
14.6% profit increase on last year.
The rising risk from natural disasters has become hard to ignore
for Japanese companies. Some non-life insurers are considering
raising insurance fees to make up for the cost.
"We'd like to consider raising fees" in response to a series of
big natural disasters in the current year and a rising number of
old houses suffering from water leaks, said Hirokazu Fujita,
senior managing director of Tokio Marine.
Last month, Typhoon Hagibis caused 71 rivers to burst 140 levees
over vast areas in eastern Japan, following massive floods and
power outages from Typhoon Faxai in September.
The scars of the powerful storms, as well as occasional
earthquakes, have shed light on the vulnerability of corporate
Japan to the fallout from huge natural disasters.
Three quarters of Japanese companies have been hurt by natural
disasters over the past two years, suffering damage to
factories, office buildings, distribution networks and supply
chains, a Reuters survey found.
(Reporting by Takahiko Wada, writing by Leika Kihara, editing by
Susan Fenton)
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