A Total of 363 Unique
Initiatives from Inside and Outside Japan Pursue both Sustainability and Profitability

Climate change is a major issue in contemporary society and will have a major effect on how we live in the future. MS Amlin Underwriting Limited (MS AUL), a UK (Lloyd’s) subsidiary of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, is engaged in climate change financing, recognizing a new business opportunity in responding to climate change from an insurance company perspective. Insurance underwriting the credit risk on debt owed by the Ecuador government allowed the government to procure funds at lower interest rates than normal, enabling it to allocate the 3 billion dollars in savings (approx. 46.0 billion yen) to marine protection around the Galápagos Islands, a UNESCO protected reserve and to fund responses to climate change. This was one successful example.

With women getting married later in life due to their greater involvement and advancement at work, the observation was made that if insurance existed for freezing eggs, there would be fewer people worried about infertility. So, the Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and Lifebank began providing insurance exclusively for freezing eggs. This is the first time in the industry that insurance is being provided to an egg-freezing business, so it drew a lot of attention with the story being picked up by various media, including the Nikkei Shimbun, Forbes, and Nikkei Cross Woman, which helped raise the corporate value of the MS&AD Group. This insurance was successfully commercialized through the capabilities of various departments within the company. It is a unique initiative that uses a new idea to further expand the scope of the insurance business.

While child labor, forced labor and other human rights risks have become a business issue, human rights due diligence has presented a major challenge. In 2024, MS&AD InterRisk Research and Consulting joined with the U.K.’s Ground Truth Intelligence Ltd., an investee of MS&AD Ventures, to start the Supplier Human Rights Infringement Risk Survey Service. Conducted by surveyors proficient in the local language, culture, and customs, companies located around the world are individually investigated on whether or not human rights are being infringed upon, and results are reported. The service has received many inquiries from domestic manufacturers and infrastructure-related companies. In recent years, supply chains have become global in scale, and many companies are dealing with their increasing complexity. With this the case, there are bound to be a large number of companies with a latent need for this service.

With NISA (small-amount, tax-exempt investment vehicle) expanding, more people took an interest in investing in 2024. Most information used in stock investing is expressed as visual information, and tracing trends over the long term can be a big burden. Missing out on the right time to invest while doing something else can be an issue. As a solution to these problems, at Mitsui Sumitomo Aioi Life Insurance, joint research was conducted with Mr. Nakagawa and Mr. Takano of the Innovation Lab Department at Nomura Asset Management and Mr. Nakamura from Kyoto University (now an associate professor at Kyushu University) to develop a solution that expresses stock information from multiple companies as music using AI. The details of the solution were announced at the 2024 Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence. Because it prevents missing the right time to invest, it is a solution that helps boost the earnings power of various customers.

School club activities face the issues of fewer opportunities for activities due to the low birthrate and of not being able to receive adequate instruction due to teachers working long hours and a lack of knowledge and experience. Against this backdrop, in 2024, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance joined with Sports Data Bank and Japan Post to establish a consortium supporting the transition of after-school club activities to regional club activities, a first in Japan. The group started providing a menu of items, including encouraging participants to enroll in sports safety insurance and an e-learning program for risk measures to avoid or mitigate risk. The first initiative of the consortium was concluding a partnership agreement with the Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education. Through this activity, there is a strong possibility for increasing contact points between Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance with local governments, instructors, middle school students, and their parents or guardians, and it was judged as being expected to raise the brand power of the MS&AD Group overall.

With a shortage of personnel becoming a reality due to a declining working-age population, strengthening the labor force of people aged 65 and older is a major issue in all of Japan. With the legal regime making headway, starting with amendments to the Act on Employment Security of Elderly Persons in 2021, in fiscal 2022, MS&AD Staff Service created a senior dispatch program for job assignments within the Group. As of November 2024, 301 staff members are working at 12 Group companies. Along with creating an environment that allows employees aged 65 and older to continue working with vitality, the program has succeeded in enabling Group companies to secure personnel with experience and skills who can be put to use right away. This initiative approached the company’s business power and earnings power from the standpoint of the effective use of human resources.