Ochiai, Seiichi; Takahashi, Shinichi; Takeda, Ryoko --- "Japan: The Insurance Concept in the Insurance Act and the Insurance Business Act" [2012] ELECD 183; in Burling, Julian; Lazarus, Kevin (eds), "Research Handbook on International Insurance Law and Regulation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Insurance Law and Regulation

Editor(s): Burling, Julian; Lazarus, Kevin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849807883

Section: Chapter 29

Section Title: Japan: The Insurance Concept in the Insurance Act and the Insurance Business Act

Author(s): Ochiai, Seiichi; Takahashi, Shinichi; Takeda, Ryoko

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

29 Japan: the insurance concept in the Insurance Act
and the Insurance Business Act
Seiichi Ochiai, Shinichi Takahashi and Ryoko Takeda



1. INTRODUCTION

The concept of `insurance' (hoken) in Japan has recently been a much debated subject.
There are three main reasons for this. First, since the coming into force of the Insurance
Act of Japan (Law No. 56 of 2008) on 1 April 2010, there has been a debate as to the scope
of the Act and the extent to which certain types of insurance arrangements fall within its
provisions, with their mandatory contract clauses. Second, the concept of insurance
business has been the subject of attention in the context of the Insurance Business Act of
Japan (Law No. 105 of 1995) (the `IBA'), a supervisory legislation for insurance busi-
nesses. In particular, until 2005, mutual aid businesses (kyosai)1 (except for some types of
mutual aid business (`regulated kyosai') established and regulated under specific indi-
vidual legislation other than the IBA) fell outside the supervisory control of the IBA and
as such were unregulated. The IBA was amended in 2005 to bring these mutual aid
businesses within the scope of insurance businesses governed by that Act. Finally, the
concept of insurance has been the subject of interest in respect of various types of risk
transfer schemes, where a number of practical legal issues have arisen. Among such
schemes is alternative risk transfer (ART). As ART arrangements frequently operate as an
alternative to insurance but fulfill much the same ...