Choosing my life insurance - part 2

20 Jan 2026 | #japan | #money | #insurance

I recently decided to get life insurance (収入保障保険), but I couldn’t complete the sign-up online. This is the second part of this story, so I recommend reading part 1 first.

My options

So after I couldn’t complete the online sign up (due to getting a grade B on my yearly health check), I was left with 3 options:

1. Call the insurance company to explain the health check results
2. Go with a different insurance company (that’s more expensive and might result in the same situation once they review my health check results)
3. Use an insurance broker to sign up for the insurance

I decided to go with option 3.

Choosing the insurance broker

It seems most life insurance in Japan is sold through brokers, and usually one broker has contract with many insurance companies. So next I searched for insurance agency on Google Maps around where I live. Two options came up (保険見直し本舗, ほけんの窓口), and I was very surprised that they had 4.5 and 4.9 star ratings on Google Maps.

I have never seen this type of rating in Japan, unless it’s a place for tourists (and life insurance is definitely not for tourists). Upon looking at the comments, the people seemed to be genuinely happy with the service (so it wasn’t just a bunch of empty 5 star reviews that could be bots, there were seemingly real comments on how great the service was). Still I had my doubts: insurance salespeople have a reputation for a reason.

I decided to go with ほけんの窓口 for the two simple reasons that they were slightly closer, and that I was familiar with their name (I saw their shop elsewhere). So I made a reservation online for the 10am slot on Monday.

Preparing for the meeting

My Japanese is only around N3 (and even there I would probably fail on the grammar part), so I was worried about how the meeting would go, especially if they would try to up-sell me some high-fee life-insurance-mixed-with-investment type deal.

So when making the reservation I wrote this in the comment field (thanks to ChatGPT for writing it for me):

収入保障保険について相談・申込みを希望しています。

健康診断の心電図でB判定があり、オンライン申込みでは手続きが途中で進められなくなったため、来店での相談を希望しました。 当日は健康診断結果を持参します。

希望条件は、60歳まで・月額30万円程度の保障です。 今回は収入保障保険のみ検討しており、ライフプラン作成や他の商品提案は不要です。

日本語の会話は専門的な内容だと少し不安がありますが、スマートフォンで翻訳しながら対応可能です。 数字や保障内容、スケジュールなどを画面や紙で見せていただければ理解できると思います。

事前に自分なりに調べており、収入保障保険の仕組みについては基本的な理解はあります。 よろしくお願いいたします。

In English this means:

I would like to consult and apply for income protection insurance.

I received a B result on my electrocardiogram during my health checkup, and was unable to proceed with the online application, so I requested an in-person consultation. I will bring my health checkup results with me on the day.

My desired coverage is approximately 300,000 yen per month until age 60.

This time, I am only considering income protection insurance, and do not need a life plan or other product suggestions.

I am a little worried about speaking Japanese due to the technical content, but I can use my smartphone to translate. I think I would be able to understand if you could show me the numbers, coverage details, schedule, etc. on a screen or on paper.

I did my own research in advance, and have a basic understanding of how income protection insurance works. Thank you in advance.

Then I prepared additional documents, as it is often easier to show something than to describe it (and it also leaves less room for misunderstandings/errors). I know that more privacy-conscious people would despise this approach (as it gives the insurance agent information they don’t strictly need), but I’m more relaxed about this (and I took all the documents back in the end). So I brought the following documents with me:

• health check result
• the online quote and option selection (just printed the website) - for reference on the options and price
• my business card - I expected them to ask for my employer and work title
• last year’s salary (the one I got from my company at the end of the year) - I expected them to ask for my yearly salary (the online application also did)
• residence registry (住民票, without MyNumber and 本籍) - this had unnecessary details, but I had to provide information on my wife (name, address, DoB) as she is the beneficiary, and I expected that they might ask about my kids too (though they didn’t)
• copy of my employer’s life insurance - in case they ask about other life insurance I have. It came up, but only in the context of “are you cancelling another plan to get this new one?” - somehow that would have been an issue, but getting additional coverage is apparently fine

I also prepared a list of vocabulary, but only really used 収入保障保険 from that. Still it was nice to have it printed just in case.

One point I failed to prepare for was any hospital visit from the last few years. I only have been to the dentist (fixing some cavity) and got a mole removed by the dermatologist, so I could explain them easily, but next time I will prepare better. Btw he said that these are not issues that need to be reported to the insurance company, they only care about major medical procedures.

The meeting

It took 1.5 hours and by the end I successfully signed up for the insurance I wanted.

Turns out the reviews were correct: the guy was indeed really nice and did not try to up-sell anything at all. Once he saw that I had the FWD Life quote printed, he said “yeah, he would recommend that as well” and quickly switched into explaining the details. Not trying to recommend another company or another product, simply doing what I asked for.

We went through all the details of the insurance and the options. I have researched this ahead of time, so it was easy to follow. At each option he stopped to confirm my choice, but did not push or ask for me to reason about my decisions.

Overall it felt similar to real estate agents explaining the contract, or the bank employee explaining the mortgage details: they have a strong legal requirement to explain every single part of it, so they do their best to do so. The guy was also good at using simpler Japanese and giving examples (e.g. when the topic of insurance coverage in case of permanent disability came up, he was saying “for example if you can’t hear or speak, or if you loose a leg, then this will start paying even if you are still alive”).

At some point I wanted to use Google Translate to translate part of the contract that he was showing on the screen. He said it’s not okay to take photos of the screen, but he printed it for me already, so I can translate the printed version.

He did briefly talk about his company, ほけんの窓口, but only for a few minutes:

• they have contract with multiple insurance companies (he showed me the list)
• this includes life and non-life insurance, like home or car insurance
• they are happy to review existing insurance and give advice
• contracts made through them will be the same price as if made directly with the insurance company (I found this hard to believe, but indeed the contract was the same price that I got on the insurance company’s website)
• they work in a franchise setting, so visiting another branch will not have visibility into the data I shared with them (hinting at that I should come back to this exact location)

I expected some push on car and home insurance (like “do you have a car? how is your current insurance?”) but no, he just mentioned that if I need help, let him know.

There was one minor hick-up: when going through the sign-up form there was a question 本籍は日本ですか?. To this the guy wanted to say yes, but I showed him the 住民票 that says ハンガリー. He was surprised and told me that he though since I have a Japanese driving license and live here, this should be yes. So he called the insurance company, and they told him to pick no. He then asked them if there was any additional document required (like 在留カード) but the insurance company said no, nothing extra is required.

I chose to pay by card, so the sign-up flow showed a QR code that I could scan with my phone (apparently this time it was okay to scan the screen) and then register my credit card on my phone. I did appreciate this, as in the past I had to write down my credit card details on a paper form, and this was a much more secure solution.

There were two exceptions mentioned specifically: the insurance doesn’t pay for suicide in the first 3 years (I’m actually surprised it pays for suicide at all, I though it’s excluded entirely), and it also doesn’t pay if my wife (the beneficiary) kills me.

I asked about cancelling the insurance early, and he said that it’s possible without a fee (but there is no refund, as expected). However there is a rule that cancelling and then signing up for a similar plan with another company (especially if the first one was held for less than 3 years) can be problematic. I didn’t fully get the reason behind this, but it’s not like I plan to do this anyway.

I also asked about increasing the coverage: if inflation would to be higher than expected, I might want to get higher coverage 10 years from now. He said that in principal the existing contract can’t be changed, so usually it is recommended to take out a new insurance for the difference (e.g. if you want to increase coverage by 100,000 yen, then get a new insurance for that much and keep the old one as well). This works better than cancelling the old one and taking out a new, as usually starting the insurance when you are young results in lower fees.

Next

By the end of the meeting we finalized everything and signed up for the life insurance. Content and fee is exactly the same as I wanted it. The insurance company has 10 days to review all the submitted documents, and they might ask for additional info. But all of these will go through the insurance agent, which I’m happy for (he already has my details and knows my level of Japanese). If the insurance company is fine with everything, then coverage started on the day I signed the contract.