Fitch: Japanese and Korean Insurers Are Set to Keep Buying Abroad, With About ¥4.5 Trillion Already Spent and 86% of It in the US

Insurers in Japan and South Korea are going abroad for growth, and the credit rating agency Fitch expects the shopping to continue. In a viewpoint published by Insurance Journal on April 29, 2026, written by Fitch analysts Teruki Morinaga and Sue Kim, the agency says Japanese and Korean insurers have sharply increased overseas mergers and acquisitions and strategic investments in recent years, in both developed and emerging markets. This article summarises that commentary. An earlier version of this article listed a Mitsui Sumitomo stake in W.R. Berkley and described the Berkshire Hathaway and Tokio Marine partnership as raising Tokio Marine's M&A capacity. Neither point appears in the Fitch text, so they have been removed; the Berkshire partnership is covered in a separate article.

Why are they buying abroad? Fitch points to demographics and slow growth at home. In Japan, the population has declined for 14 consecutive years, which weighs on domestic growth, and Fitch expects Japanese life insurers' underwriting profit margins to peak within five to ten years because of demographic pressure. In Korea, premium growth is slowing because of an ageing population, low economic growth, interest rate cuts and stricter K-ICS capital rules. Fitch projects Korean insurance revenue growth below 5% in 2026. For insurers with large capital bases, buying growth abroad is a response.

The pattern in Japan is established. Fitch says more than half of the Japanese insurers it rates have done M&A in the past decade. Major deals total about ¥4.5 trillion, or about US$35 billion, and 86% of that is in the United States. The agency notes that the US is the only major developed market larger than Japan with steady population growth, and that North America accounts for roughly 40% of global non-life premiums. It lists advantages of the US for Japanese buyers: a familiar business language, transparent corporate law, strong regulation, and the ability to take 100% ownership. It also says Japanese insurers are cash-ready and can outbid private equity buyers. Not every overseas move has worked: Fitch cites Meiji Yasuda's 2023 sale of its stake in PT Avrist Assurance in Indonesia and Dai-ichi's May 2025 plan to divest its stake in Ocean Life Insurance in Thailand as examples of failed Asian deals.

The key deals are named. Tokio Marine entered the US in the early 2000s and has acquired three US insurers. Dai-ichi Life also entered in the early 2000s and acquired Protective Life. Sompo acquired Aspen Insurance Holdings in 2025. Nippon Life announced two acquisitions in 2024, including Resolution Life Group for ¥1.2 trillion, or US$8.4 billion, and is the last major Japanese life insurer to enter North America. Fitch's insurer financial strength ratings for the Japanese groups include AA-/Stable for Tokio Marine & Nichido, Dai-ichi Life and Nippon Life, and A+/Stable for Meiji Yasuda and Sumitomo Life.

The credit effect has been positive so far. Fitch says Japanese insurers target mid-sized US insurers with relatively low credit risk, avoid large natural catastrophe and commodity exposure, and favour specialty lines. Parental support has helped the subsidiaries: Fitch upgraded Resolution Life's US subsidiary, and Protective Life was upgraded two notches to AA-/Stable after Dai-ichi's acquisition. Nearly all Japanese-owned US subsidiaries have performed soundly with steady growth, according to the commentary.

Korea is following, from a smaller base. Korean insurers have historically concentrated on Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam and Indonesia, with minority or strategic stakes. Fitch says cross-border M&A reached about US$2.6 billion in 2025, over 75% of the total M&A value in the past five years. The most active groups are DB Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine, Hanwha Life and Samsung Life. Hanwha Life acquired 75% of the US brokerage Velocity Clearing in 2025 and 40% of PT Bank Nationalnobu in Indonesia, and DB Insurance acquired Fortegra for US$1.65 billion, which Fitch describes as the first 100% acquisition of a US insurer by a Korean firm and the largest Korean cross-border insurance deal to date. Fitch sees these deals as credit-neutral to mildly positive in the short term, if capital management and integration are prudent.

There are risks. Concentration is the first. Fitch estimates that about 20% of major Japanese life insurers' profits come from North America, with a higher share for non-life insurers: about 60% of Tokio Marine's group income comes from the US, and about 30% of Sompo's, for the fiscal year to March 2025. That makes Japanese insurers more exposed to spillover from US real estate and private credit shocks. Fitch expects more issuance of subordinated bonds to fund acquisitions, particularly by Japanese insurers, since such debt counts as a regulatory capital buffer. In Korea, laws limit insurers' borrowing, so acquisitions are mostly funded from internal liquidity. Fitch estimates that DB Insurance's K-ICS ratio will fall by 15 to 20 percentage points after Fortegra, and that Hanwha Life's ratio fell about 2 points after Velocity. Macroeconomic conditions, geopolitics and regulation could strain buyers and their subsidiaries.

For sellers in the US and Europe, the message is that long-term buyers are available. For customers of acquired companies, the typical pattern is continuity, with the acquired brand and management kept in place. For regulators, the growth of cross-border ownership raises questions about group capital and supervision. This article reports Fitch's views and is not investment advice.