Press Conference by ASO Taro, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister of State for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

(Friday, August 28, 2020, 11:26 am to 11:28 am)

[Questions and answers:]

Q.

The Japan Post Group announced the day before yesterday that it would begin operations aimed at resuming the sale of Kampo life insurance policies, from which it had been voluntarily refraining after certain fraudulent sales practices had come to light. The Group did not indicate a specific day for restarting sales, but it appears that priority will be given to apologizing to customers and restoring confidence. Please give us your opinions on Japan Post’s current situation.

A.

I do know that the Japan Post Group will be issuing apologies, handing down punishments and doing a variety of other things to make up for having inconvenienced customers of its insurance products and investment trusts, sales of which they had put on hold for a while. I believe they are now quickly and precisely carrying improvement plans, attending to disadvantaged customers and ensuring proper business operations. I think they have nearly finished dealing with their disadvantaged customers. However, because employee punishments will involve well over two thousand personnel, they have not yet finished with this. In any case, striving to restore confidence is most important, and we need to keep an eye on how this is going.