Falling stock prices and sluggish demand left all the nation's major life insurance companies with reduced revenues and net assets in the year that ended on March 31, according to earnings reports released Friday.
Premium income -- the equivalent of revenue at other businesses -- fell at the 10 largest life insurers. The aggregate year-on-year drop was 7.8 percent, with Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co. seeing the largest drop, of 29.2 percent, to 768.6 billion yen.
Policies in force, a measure of total business volume, similarly fell for the sixth consecutive year at seven of the 10 largest life insurers -- Nippon Life Insurance Co., Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co., Meiji Life Insurance Co., Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Co., Sumitomo Life Insurance Co., Mitsui Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Asahi Mutual.