| This research examines the Japanese life insurance market, the largest and arguably, the most important market in the world. In addition to providing a thorough description analysis of the Japanese life insurance market, this research primarily seeks to answer two empirical questions: What relationships, if any, exist among the five major product lines of life insurance in Japan and a set of theoretically identified macro-level variables, and to identify any relationships that may exist across the product lines of life insurance themselves.; In the course of answering these questions, an overview of the Japanese life insurance market is presented that investigates the aggregate demand (as measured by the amount of business-in-force) for such products in light of the current dynamic marketplace.; This work serves as one of the first empirical investigations of the Japanese life insurance market that has been presented outside of Japan. Two aspects of the data structure are particularly significant. The data has been collected on a quarterly basis, thus allowing for analysis on a seasonal basis. Additionally, the data allows for the separation of the various forms of life insurance, thereby allowing for a more product-specific analysis.; Empirical findings point to a unique pattern of demand for various products that vary according to the four calendar quarters. This demand, however, does not correlate well with the flow of aggregate income, contradicting the classical assumptions that motivate the Income Effect hypothesis. These findings suggest the need for further investigation of this unusual pattern of demand.; The research also found a seeming lack of endogeneity amongst most of the life insurance products at the macro-level. Finally, the results point to the lack of a significant similarity of results across the NEW and NET NEW forms of measurement of the dependent variables, suggesting a general lack of influence of new business written as it relates to the net business for a given quarter. |
