Message from the President

　My name is Kenichiro Ishijima, and I assumed the role of President and Representative Director in April 2024. Thank you for supporting Asahi Life. I would like to take this opportunity to greet all stakeholders.
　Since joining the company in 1988, I have spent 36 years advancing alongside Asahi Life, gaining experience in various departments such as those in charge of corporate planning and the agency
business. From April 2021, I served as the President of Nanairo Life, a subsidiary of Asahi Life, where I contributed to the launch and expansion of a new channel for the company: the independent agency channel. Thanks to these efforts, Nanairo Life's new policy sales in the independent agency market has steadily grown, contributing to the Group's overall new policy sales.
　For a life insurance company, obtaining a policy with a customer is not the end goal but the starting point of a long-lasting relationship. The most important thing is to maintain the company's sound condition over the long term and continuously provide reliable coverage to our customers. Therefore, I believe my role is to manage with a long-term perspective, ensuring that our operations benefit our customers and lead to healthy company growth, without being distracted by short-term performance.

　When asked, "What is Asahi Life's strength?" I would answer, "Its experience of overcoming two management crises." As a result of efforts such as reassessing business areas and improving financial
structure, our company regained an A grade for the first time in 21 years in fiscal 2022.
　Paradoxically, I believe that the experience of employees overcoming such challenges together has strengthened the company's resilience—the ability to adapt flexibly and recover from difficulties and threats. In an era where the business environment is rapidly changing, the flexibility to withstand these changes is essential for management. Now that our finances have normalized and we are on a new growth trajectory, there is a tendency for the sense of crisis from those days to fade. Passing on this DNA of adaptability to the younger generation of employees also remains one of our challenges.
　Additionally, drawing from the experience of overcoming past crises, I am firmly determined as a leader not to postpone issues. I will strive for timely management decisions that align with societal and market changes.
　Furthermore, I believe that close communication with employees greatly supports flexible management decisions, a realization I gained from my own experiences. During my time as President of Nanairo
Life, proactively engaging in communication with employees helped me stay informed about what was happening within the company, leading to prompt recognition of issues and swift decision-making,
which I believe proved effective.

　In the mid-term management plan for FY 2021– FY 2023, “Advance: The road to 2030,” despite challenging business conditions such as the COVID-19 pandemic and rising prices, the growth of our subsidiary Nanairo Life, which commenced operations in 2021, contributed to achieving the Asahi Life Group’s strategic targets in terms of the number of customers, annualized premiums from new policies for protection-type products, and annualized premiums from policies in force for protection-type products.
　Looking at the future business environment,until 2030 in Japan, despite continued aging and a declining working-age population, the influx of the junior baby boomer generation suggests that the senior customer segment, our main target, will maintain a certain volume. However, a decline in the senior population, among others, is expected post-2030. In terms of technology, advancements in AI and digital technologies hold the potential to transform the life insurance business, while overseas, particularly in Asia, market expansion driven by population growth and economic development is anticipated.
　With this understanding of the business environment, we have developed a new mid-term management plan for FY 2024– FY 2026, “Next A:Towards the Realization of Our Vision for 2030.“ One of the strategic pillars is "providing optimal products and services to each customer." We aim to deliver products and services that meet various customer needs by promoting our multi-channel strategy, involving the sales representative channel of Asahi Life and the independent agency channel of Nanairo Life, among others.
　With increasingly diverse lifestyles, providing optimal products and services through channels that align with individual customer preferences is essential. The sales representative channel, the mainstay of the Group, will focus on retaining existing policies in force, while Nanairo Life will serve as a growth driver by increasing new customers. These two channels will be key in driving group-wide growth.
　While there remain many opportunities to pursue in the Japanese market, the shrinking market due to Japan’s aging population also signals challenges for the life insurance industry. In response, we have been partnering with a local insurance company in Vietnam since 2017, providing expertise in telemarketing insurance sales and consulting on internet-based business models. In March 2023, we established Asahi Life Consulting Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City to expand our consulting business and advance new business developments and revenue generation.

　Nanairo Life, having experienced rapid growth, is in a stage where it needs to solidify its foundation over the next three years and prepare for the next growth phase. Meanwhile, the sales epresentative channel, which still accounts for approximately half of the life insurance enrollment routes, remains the backbone of the Group. The challenge for the sales representative channel is to clearly define its significance and value, refining it into a sustainable business model for the future. This requires discerning what should evolve with the times and what core strengths must remain unchanged.
　The personalized consulting and earnest aftersales service conducted face-to-face with customers in the sales representative channel are precisely the strengths that must not change.
　Many customers continue to express a desire to hear detailed explanations from a sales representative when selecting an insurance product, have someone to easily consult when they have questions, and receive a prompt response when needed. These needs persist regardless of changing times.
　While continuously enhancing aspects that improve efficiency and convenience for customers through digitalization and other means, we will maintain and strengthen the consulting and services that our customers expect.

　In rapidly aging Japan, we have focused early on the third-sector market, which offers coverage for living, such as medical, cancer, and nursing care insurance, developing products and services in these areas. Our nursing care and dementia insurance, including the Anshin Kaigo series, has been particularly well-received for its comprehensive coverage and uniqueness. We will continue to focus on developing and offering products and services that address Japan's social challenges.
　The life insurance industry has long been regarded as a mature market where creating new areas and products is difficult. However, the desired coverage changes constantly with the evolving values and lifestyles of customers. Regarding these diverse needs, I believe that the answer always lies in conversations with customers. Listening to customer feedback and making improvements to products and services is essential, but the key lies in discerning the underlying latent needs as a life insurance company. I think that this is where seeds for services that exceed customer expectations and innovative ideas are buried.

　In the DX (Digital Transformation) strategy, which has been ongoing since the previous mid-term management plan, we will continue to enhance customer convenience and improve employee work efficiency through the use of devices such as "Smart Eye II," which supports sales representative presentations, and internal platforms.
　We position human capital management as a key focus area alongside the DX strategy. The structure of our workforce closely resembles Japan's demographic structure, which faces declining birthrates and an aging population. To maintain corporate vitality, we will promote not only the hiring of new graduates but also mid-career recruitment and opportunities for senior employees. Supporting the growth of each employee and creating an organization that values individuality are also essential for enhancing each individual's capabilities. To further boost employee engagement, work-life balance is, of course, important,but so is the sense that one can "grow through work" and feel that "one’s work is contributing to society."
　To balance work ease with work fulfillment,we aim to create a workplace environment where employees can set career goals autonomously and work energetically, fostering a corporate culture that encourages taking on challenges without fear.

　Our vision for 2030, inherited from the previous mid-term management plan, is as follows: “Asahi Life: a company that contributes to resolving social issues and continues to support customers’ lives through the life insurance business in this era of the 100-year lifespan.”
　While we have already been addressing social issues through our core business, we now aim to take this further by integrating our core business with sustainability management. For example, in the areas of nursing care and dementia that we focus on, we want to not only provide excellent insurance products but also consider offering comprehensive solutions to caregiving challenges.
　In addition to our own initiatives, we have also been promoting responsible investments that consider ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) as awareness of ESG investing has increased.
　The recognition that sustainability efforts are linked to corporate value and stock performance is now shared globally. Our company will also enhance communication with investee companies through
engagement (dialogue) and other means.
　By integrating business with sustainability, we aim to achieve the strategic targets set forth in the new mid-term management plan.

　“Those who possess both the perspective of an outsider and the power of an insider are rare leaders capable of successfully driving transformation within an organization.” These are the words of John Kotter,an esteemed professor emeritus of leadership at Harvard Business School. I have held this phrase as my motto ever since learning about organizational change theory.
　I once encountered a period where I was seconded to a general company, and during that time, I had the chance to be solicited for insurance within the workplace. Viewing the situation from the perspective of an outsider, rather than as an "employee of an insurance company," made the challenges of what I previously took for granted in our sales style become clearer.
　On the other hand, during my tenure as president of Nanairo Life, specialized in the independent agency channel, I gained a renewed appreciation for the added value of consulting and after-service offered by exclusive face-to-face sales representative channels.These insights were only possible because I had experienced positions outside of Asahi Life. I will leverage both the outsider's perspective gained from my career experiences and the momentum built as an insider to contribute to management.
　My mission as a leader is to meet customer expectations by providing better products and services, and to enhance the purpose of existence and corporate value of our company, ensuring sound business continuity. To achieve this, it is important to receive candid feedback from our customers and to continually consider the underlying needs behind that feedback. I sincerely ask for the continued support and patronage of all our stakeholders.