ACLI Urges Action Against New Japan Postal Life Products

The American Council of Life Insurers is hoping U.S. officials will work with top Japanese officials to rein in the Japanese postal life insurance system.

The system, which is in the process of being privatized and stripped of many subsidies and privileges, should not get to introduce new products until it complies with the same rules governing private life insurers, the ACLI says in a statement.

Japan’s Postal Privatization Commission recently ruled that the giant postal life system can add products before “equal conditions” are established without violating the General Agreement on Trade in Services, which requires Japan to treat foreign-based suppliers of services in the same manner as it treats the most favored domestic suppliers.