Initiatives and Services to Help Japan Achieve Its Healthy Longevity Goals

Group-wide Initiatives to Tackle Dementia

In an effort to realize our management philosophy of contributing to the security, health, and wellbeing of our customers and society as a whole by providing insurance and related services of the highest quality possible, we focus on social issues relating to dementia and aim to build a society that strives to prevent dementia and enables people to continue living long and happy lives with dignity as individuals, even after being diagnosed with dementia.

SOMPO Dementia Support Program

We are promoting the SOMPO Dementia Support Program throughout the Group under the slogan, “build a society that strives to prepare for dementia and enables people to continue living long and happy lives with dignity as individuals, even after being diagnosed with dementia.”

1. First in the Industry: Egao Wo Mamoru Dementia Insurance

In October 2018, Sompo Himawari Life launched Egao Wo Mamoru Dementia Insurance (Dementia Insurance for protecting your smile), the industry’s first insurhealth product that guarantees mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
The company offers a full range of support to customers by helping them to delay the onset and progression of dementia, along with responding to their nursing care needs. In addition to providing insurance functions that cover MCI and dementia with one-time payment, the company offers cognitive function checks and other services to help prevent cognitive impairment, the SOMPO Egao Club Dementia Support Service, webbased service that provides basic information on dementia and dementia care, and Sompo Care nursing care services to support customers when such care is required.

2. First in Industry: Oyako No Chikara Insurance to Prevent Employees from Leaving the Workforce

Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. has developed the industry's first insurance policy, "Oyako Chikara", which helps people who work while caring for their parents to "balance work and nursing care", in order to solve the social issue of people leaving the workforce due to nursing care for parents, which has been increasing in recent years.
The product integrates nursing care services and insurance, allowing the insured person (adult) to smoothly use nursing care services while at the same time compensating for the cost of caring for the parent.

3. Nursing Care Services Offered by Sompo Care

We acquired Watami no Kaigo Co. in December 2015 and Message Co. in March 2016, and integrated them with our group companies to form Sompo Care Inc. The company aims to serve customers in communities with a full range of high quality nursing care services, ranging from at-home care to facility-based care.
We listen to users and provide care based on observations of their health and living environment so that people with dementia can continue living with dignity as individuals. We aim to provide highly customized care, cooperating with medical institutions to review drugs, alleviate physical pain, and improve nutritional status, while using digital technology to grasp patient’s sleeping patterns, toilet habits, and other activities.

4. Total Support Service for Dementia, "SOMPO Egao Club"

In October 2018, Prime Assistance launched an online service that checks cognitive capabilities, helps prevent cognitive decline, and provides basic knowledge on dementia and information on nursing care. This service can be used incidental to Sompo Japan’s "Oyako No Chikara" and Sompo Himawari Life’s "Egao Wo Mamoru Dementia Insurance".
In addition, some functions of the service are available to non-members since August 2020.

5. "Egao Wo Mamoru Dementia Insurance" for Effective Control of Cognitive Decline

In 2020, under the supervision of Professor Miia Kivipelto of the Karolinska Institutet, who led the FINGER study,^* and the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, we developed the "SOMPO Smile Aging Program", a program to help prevent cognitive decline by improving the lifestyle of older people. This program is the world’s first nationwide FINGER study social implementation program approved by Professor Kivipelto.
In the future, we aim to reduce the risk of developing dementia in Japan by rolling out the program throughout Japan.

• The Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER), involving 1,260 older people, was the first in the world to prove that providing simultaneous multimodal intervention guidance on nutrition, exercise, cognitive training and lifestyle is effective in suppressing mild cognitive impairment.
  A Japanese version of the study, the Japan-multimodal intervention trial for prevention of dementia (J-MINT) started in 2019. Sompo Holdings participates in the study as a co-research institute, aiming to create a dementia prevention service with a view to future social implementation.

Raising Awareness on Dementia

1. Dementia Barrier-Free Declaration by Sompo Group Companies

In order to create a barrier-free society for people with dementia so that they and their families can live safely, securely, and healthily, Sompo Group companies are promoting the formulation of their Dementia Barrier-Free Declaration. We will continue to work as a Group to promote the creation of a community-based society.

• 10 companies as of August 31, 2023

2. Training Dementia Supporters

Our Group is working to train dementia supporters to ensure correct understanding of dementia, and to watch out for and support dementia patients and their families.

● Caravan-Mates

Caravan-Mates are certified lecturers of dementia supporter training seminars. To become a Caravan-Mate, one must go through the requisite training and registration process.

3. Activities for World Alzheimer’s Day (September 21)

We hold various events on World Alzheimer’s Day (September 21), which was jointly established by Alzheimer’s Disease International and the World Health Organization.

(1) Transmission of a message to raise awareness of dementia from the Sompo Japan headquarters building
Every year on September 21, World Alzheimer’s Day, the Sompo Japan headquarters building is lit up in orange, the color used to indicate awareness and support of dementia. We have been lighting up our headquarters building on this date since 2017.

(2)Seminar for thinking about dementia
In cooperation with the Alzheimer’s Association Japan and a number of companies and organizations that support the objectives of the seminar, we hold a seminar called “Living Together: Seminar for Thinking about Dementia” on the theme of “‘Talk with’: Let’s talk with everyone” each year in September.

4. Launch of "Anna Konna" Website Full of Hints for Dementia Care

This website, which supports people providing dementia care at home, is operated by Sompo Care in the hope that our knowledge of nursing care will be useful to home nursing care providers. The website draws on the knowledge of frontline dementia care professionals to introduce lifehacks on how to apply wisdom and ingenuity when providing nursing care at home, in relation to all kinds of problems associated with caring for people with dementia.
The "Anna Konna" website was awarded the Good Design Award 2020.

The "Anna Konna" website (In Japanese)

Initiatives to improve productivity with quality nursing care services

The number of elderly people requiring nursing care continues to rise, and it is estimated that by 2040 there will be a supply-demand gap of approximately 690,000 nursing care staff. Sompo has launched egaku, a business that leverages real data to provide other nursing care providers with solutions that help improve productivity while ensuring quality. Through egaku, we aim to provide nursing care providers with the added value of (1) fostering job satisfaction among nursing care staff and (2) achieving an overwhelming increase in productivity while ensuring quality, thereby eliminating the supply-demand gap in the nursing care industry.
In addition, to further improve the quality of nursing care services and retain employees, Sompo Care implemented improvements in compensation in April 2022, following the first round of improvements in October 2019, targeting highly skilled employees who are the driving force behind building a strong frontline that supports users as well as colleagues.

Launch of egaku business

In April 2023, SOMPO CARE launched the egaku business, which provides services that address social issues in the nursing care industry by using real data collected in the frontlines. The egaku business provides three types of services: (1) Data Utilization Service (software), (2) Digitalization Support Service, and (3) Professional Services. Through these services, we support the digitalization and systemization of nursing care providers, thereby improving service quality and reducing the workload of nursing care staff, which in turn contributes to improving the sustainability of the nursing care industry.
For more information, please refer to egaku's service introduction page:

egaku (In Japanese)

Improving staff working conditions

As the first step in improving working conditions, in addition to complying with the introduction of the Japanese government’s scheme that pays additional compensation to care workers who meet certain requirements, the company invested approximately one billion yen per year to raise the compensation of its employees, focusing on certified care workers, to the top level in the region from October 2019. As the second step, in April 2022, the company elevated the compensation of employees who take on nursing care staff leadership roles to the same level as nurses.

● Life Planning Meeting to Enrich Your Life
Yume Yui, an Original Notebook for Writing a Living Will, and an Accompanying Educational Booklet

Based on the concept of respecting for human dignity and rights advocated in its management philosophy, Sompo Care focuses on Advance Care Planning (ACP) – Jinsei Kaigi (life planning meetings) to help older people live a fulfilled, dignified and happy life right up until the end of life.
In February 2021, the company produced a notebook for writing a living will, Yume Yui, and an educational booklet on how to hold life planning meetings, to act as a catalyst to holding such meetings with loved ones in preparation for the future. The booklets can be used as a practical tool to facilitate life planning meetings and are available to the public on our website.
Sompo Care started providing in-house training relating to life planning meetings in 2019, and has worked to deepen understanding of the role of such meetings. Going forward, the company plans to expand our initiatives to promote life planning meetings at all our care homes and offices.

• Both tools were developed under the supervision of Professor Junji Matsuoka MD (Department of Palliative and Supportive Medicine, Okayama University Hospital), a specialist in palliative medicine.

Making Sompo Care’s homes into multi-generational exchange hubs in the community
Began operation of “Sompo Children’s Cafeteria"

Sompo Care has begun operating the Sompo Children’s Cafeteria at its residential locations, including its nationwide nursing homes. By creating opportunities for interaction between residents and children and turning its homes into multigenerational exchange hubs for local residents, Sompo Care aims to bring energy and smiles to residents, foster greater job satisfaction for employees, and contribute to social issues surrounding children. Operations began in November 2022 at 82 nursing homes, and are scheduled to be rolled out to all residential locations by the end of fiscal 2023.
Based on the action guideline of "deepening our relationship with the community, supporting the lives of our customers in the community, and playing a role in social development," we will continue to operate the Sompo Children's Cafeterias and take on other activities as a member of the local community going forward.

Going forward

The need to secure and retain human resources and improve productivity through streamlining operations to eliminate the supply-demand gap for nursing care personnel is not a problem unique to us, but one that affects the industry as a whole. In addition to improving the sustainability of the industry by developing the egaku business, we will also strive to improve our own productivity while ensuring quality, and will work to boost job satisfaction by sharing the benefits of these improvements with our employees. We will also work to communicate the appeal of the nursing care profession and its high level of expertise to improve the social status of nursing care staff and the nursing care industry as a whole.

“Wellbeing Support” Service for Elderly Customers

Sompo Japan Partners has started offering “Wellbeing Support,” a unique service that allows elderly customers to use the company's products with even greater wellbeing. With this service, the company contacts families or other relatives registered by elderly customers in advance in cases where elderly customers cannot be reached, such as when they are out for a long period of time or in the case of a disaster, to confirm the customer’s safety or provide information on insurance policy expiration dates. This service prevents elderly customers' insurance contracts from expiring and terminating during times they cannot be reached, thus bringing wellbeing to them as well as their families living apart.
In preparation for the ever-progressing super-aging population, we will continue to improve service quality with the aim of becoming a friendly insurance agency for elderly customers.