Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred fifty-fifth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. This week, we are excited to have new subscribers join us from the National Payments Corporation of Kazakhstan, the International Monetary Fund, LSEG, and Groupe Crédit Agricole, among others 🙏 2026 was supposed to be the year marked by
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred fifty-fourth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. This week, we welcome new subscribers from the Bank of Thailand, the Commonwealth Treasury, Vietcap Securities, Broadridge, Tryfunds inc., and the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office, among others 🙏 I started compiling this edition on Monday morning, while listening
Insurance
Nippon Life Insurance Company has announced the upcoming launch of "Treatment Support Insurance 'Pitaho'," a new addition to its flexible Nissay Mirai no Katachi lineup. Set to hit the market on April 2, 2026, the new product aims to tackle the unpredictability of modern healthcare costs
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred fifty-third edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Thank you for your patience (again), we are just a little bit conference'd out, and there are still a few days to go in Japan FinTech Week(s). For us, the highlights during the first week
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred fifty-second edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Happy birthday to Emperor Naruhito 🎂 It's conference week again! If you would like to meet, you will most likely find us at the N.Avenue conference, the Credit Saison Blockchain Summit, the Yield Summit, and MoneyX.
Insurance
Sompo Holdings delivered a robust set of third-quarter results for fiscal year 2025, posting a sharp increase in profitability driven by improved underwriting margins in its domestic property and casualty (P&C) business and sustained growth in overseas operations. Buoyed by lower-than-expected natural catastrophe losses and strong investment returns,
insurtech
The intersection of generative artificial intelligence and highly regulated financial services represents one of the most critical and heavily contested growth vectors in the contemporary global enterprise software market. Within this rapidly evolving paradigm, OdysseyAI, a specialized technology enterprise established in 2024 and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, has emerged as
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred fifty-first edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. "AI is killing SaaS", or "software will be abundant and free" are the latest taglines of the AI prophets, after the path to AGI via LLMs has been discredited. Whether or not that will
Insurance
Sumitomo Life Insurance Company has released the findings of an internal investigation, confirming that employees seconded to independent insurance agencies engaged in the improper acquisition of sensitive business information. The investigation, which spanned operations from April 2022 through October 2025, revealed that seconded staff transmitted proprietary data back to Sumitomo
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred forty-eighth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. As widely expected, the Bank of Japan did not change the policy rate at the Monetary Policy Meeting last week. Amir Anvarzadeh of ASYMMETRIC ADVISORS commented on CNBC that the Bank of Japan should raise interest rates by
digital identity
In a move to fortify digital security and streamline customer experience, two MS&AD Insurance Group subsidiaries—Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance—have adopted the Authlete backend service to implement OpenID Connect (OIDC) across their customer platforms. The deployment, executed by the group’s IT arm
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred forty-seventh edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. A unicorn was born through Alpaca's latest funding round. As if we knew this was coming, we are pleased to announce that Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer Hitoshi Harada will join the next Tokyo FinTech Meetup