Car insurance renewal
10 Jun 2026 | #car | #japan | #money | #insuranceWe bought a second-hand minivan last year and took out optional insurance for it. Since it’s been almost a year, the insurance is up for renewal.
No discount for loyalty
About 2 months before the expiration of the insurance, I got an email from the current insurance company, Axa, telling me to check and renew the insurance. When I logged in to their website they presented me with a quote of 48,880 yen for the next 12 months. Last year I paid 40,750 yen, so this is a 20% increase. I have not had any accident, so my non-fleet grade (ノンフリート等級) went up by one, so the premium should actually be lower.
Turns out this is pretty common: insurance companies give you a good first year discount, and hope that you won’t invest the time to switch.
I really don’t like this business model, so I went back at comparing quotes.
Kakaku.com
Same as last year, I requested quotes from kakaku.com. This time I entered slightly different criteria, and dropped insurance for our own car entirely. This resulted in the following quotes:
| Company | Company EN | Yearly fee |
|---|---|---|
| チューリッヒ保険会社 | Zurich Insurance | ¥15,360 |
| SBI損保 | SBI Insurance | ¥18,630 |
| SOMPOダイレクト | SOMPO Direct | ¥20,880 |
| 東京海上ダイレクト | Tokio Marine Direct | ¥22,118 |
| 三井ダイレクト損保 | Mitsui Direct Insurance | ¥22,380 |
| 楽天損保 | Rakuten Insurance | ¥24,450 |
| ソニー損保 | Sony Insurance | ¥33,000 |
The difference was pretty small among the top of the pack, so I asked Gemini to gather reviews of each company. It said that Zurich and SBI has many complaints about how they handle claims, and recommended going with SOMPO or Sony. I checked SOMPO’s reviews and liked what people said, so decided to go with them.
Fine-tuning
Discounts
The offer had the following discounts:
- 9,500 yen off as internet discount (I believe this is the one that only applies in the first year)
- 2,000 yen off for no-claims during the last year
- 600 yen off as an “early bird” discount
Basic coverage (基本補償)
The following is included in the plan and can not be adjusted:
| Item | Coverage |
|---|---|
| Bodily Injury Liability (対人賠償) | Unlimited |
| Property Damage Liability (対物賠償) | Unlimited |
| Property Damage Total Loss Excess Repair Cost Rider (対物全損時修理差額費用特約) | Included |
| Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage (無保険車傷害) | Unlimited |
| Driving Other Vehicles Rider (他車運転特約) | Included |
| Victim Relief Expenses Rider (被害者救済費用特約) | Included |
| ALSOK Accident Scene Peace of Mind Support (ALSOK事故現場安心サポート) | Included |
It starts with the usual (and the main purpose of the optional insurance): full coverage for injury and property damage caused by me.
The Property Damage Total Loss Excess Repair Cost Rider is interesting: if the other car is an older model, insurance might declare total loss and pay out the value of the car. If the owner decides that they want to repair the car and it costs more than the total value, they might try to sue to cover this. So this coverage pays out up to 500,000 yen in this case.
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage covers death or permanent disability resulting from an accident with an uninsured vehicle, provided you cannot receive adequate compensation from the other party.
Driving Other Vehicles Rider is interesting, it applies the same coverage when you drive a friend’s car or a rental car. Most people limit their own insurance to themselves and their spouse, so when borrowing a friend’s car, the friend’s insurance usually doesn’t cover you. With this, your insurance does.
Victim Relief Expenses Rider is a bit unclear. The Japanese description translated says “If a bodily injury or property damage accident occurs due to a defect or unauthorized access (such as hacking) of the insured vehicle, and it is officially determined that the insured person bears no legal liability for damages, this rider will pay insurance benefits to cover the expenses incurred by the insured person to provide relief to the victim.” I wonder how often this happens.
ALSOK Accident Scene Peace of Mind Support: when you report an accident to the insurance company, they will dispatch a nearby ALSOK personnel, who will help handle the accident. It is a bit weird to use ALSOK for this, as they are a home security company (among other things), but that means they have people ready to respond in most places of Japan, so it makes sense that they can arrive to the scene fast.
The overall cost of this is 30,200 yen, which comes down to 18,100 yen after all the discounts.
Addons
I will cover the additional things I asked to be included in the insurance.
Coverage for personal injury of me and my passengers
The other party is already covered in the basic coverage, but this is to cover the medical costs of people in my car. Unlimited coverage including accidents outside the car (e.g. getting hit while cycling or walking) only cost 2,000 yen, so added it.
Insurance for our own car
This is the item that can easily double the price (and the one that I missed in the initial kakaku estimate). I decided to add the same as last year: high deductible (100,000 yen) and exclude single-vehicle accidents (scratching the car on a utility pole, getting hit-and-run). This brought down the price from the full coverage’s 35,820 yen (no deductible) to 12,760 yen with a car value of 2 million yen. This includes:
- Accidents with other vehicles when the fault is (partially) mine
- Fire, natural disasters (typhoon, floods, hail, snow), vandalism
- Theft
Roadside assistance
2,130 yen, handled by JAF, so probably great coverage. It helps not only in case of an accident, but also if you run out of fuel, the battery dies, or if you lock the key inside the car.
Legal expense insurance
For 3,990 yen it covers legal expenses up to 3 million yen. Comparatively expensive, but I really don’t want to have to deal with someone if they don’t have insurance or don’t want to cooperate.
Overall
Overall this brought the price to 37,480 yen. Compared to last year’s 40,750 yen, I’m pretty happy with this. The coverage is almost identical (some parts are even better). What brought the price down is the accident-free history (better grade, no-claims discount) and that I changed the value of our car from 2.5 million yen to 2 million yen.
