Group CEO message
When I became Group CEO in 2024, I signaled my commitment to transform to stakeholders both within the Group and outside. I took this stance because I believe transformation would be essential to addressing the challenges in our business environment—ranging increasingly severe natural disasters, geopolitical risks, mounting inflation, and generative AI and other technological advances to demographic trends in Japan such as a declining population and the progressive aging of society—while also addressing changing customer needs. Since then, I have continually stressed the need for executives and employees to grasp the significance of reform and the importance of taking action. As Group CEO, I see it as my greatest responsibility to complete this transformation.
The fruit of transformations and a confident sense of moving forward
The Group’s Mid-Term Management Plan covering the period from FY2024 to FY2026 set out two goals for qualitative transformation: to “increase resilience” and realize our aim to “connect and be connected.” Sompo Japan Insurance, which runs our domestic P&C insurance operations, initiated the SJ-R project to rebuild the operating foundation by reforming areas such as corporate culture and quality control, and by earning structure through reforms to the underwriting portfolio, sales operations, and other aspects of business.
Our transformations began to bear tangible fruit in FY2025, with adjusted consolidated profit reached a record high of ¥535.2 billion. This put us over our target of ¥500 billion, originally set for FY2030, five years ahead of schedule. Adjusted consolidated ROE rose to 13.4%, against a FY2026 target of 13–15%. As of the end of March 2026, market capitalization was around ¥5.3 trillion, a robust 70% improvement over the level of roughly ¥3.1 trillion (excluding treasury stock) at the end of March 2024, when we formulated the FY2024-2026 management plan.
Aside from external factors such as fewer natural disasters, these results were also due to the gradual recovery in profitability at Sompo Japan Insurance stemming from the SJ-R project, alongside steady growth driven by Sompo International. All four of the Group’s core businesses, including domestic life insurance and nursing care, recorded year-on-year increases in revenue and profit, contributing to growth at the Group level.
In April 2025, we transitioned to a new management structure, integrating operations into the two business segments of SOMPO P&C and SOMPO Wellbeing. The aim of the transition was to break down the silos that had been created by our earlier adoption of a four business-segment structure encompassing the domestic P&C insurance, overseas insurance, domestic life insurance, and nursing care. This marked a major decision to accelerate ongoing moves to “connect and be connected,” in addition to creating Centers of Excellence to foster reciprocal learning across geographical and business boundaries, and position the Group to meet the genuine needs of customer. Recent positive results prove the wisdom of our reforms. I believe that, over the past year, our employees have gained a confident sense of moving forward—that our company is capable of change and that, together, we can build a future.
A year of laying foundations for future growth
FY2026 will be a critical year for solidifying progress on the current growth trajectory and further enhancing corporate value. Besides achieving the targets to which we have committed in the Mid-Term Management Plan (adjusted consolidated ROE of 13%–15% and a CAGR of at least 12% for adjusted EPS), we will focus on preparing for the next stage of growth.
Under the leadership of business CEO James Shea, alongside further organic growth based on geographical expansion, SOMPO P&C is working to streamline costs, pursue more sophisticated underwriting, and generate other operating synergies in the reinsurance business as quickly as possible from the post-merger integration following the FY2025 acquisition of Aspen. At Sompo Japan Insurance, as well as steadily putting the business improvement plans into place, efforts will focus on further increasing profitability and customer value by speeding up reforms to the operating foundation and earnings structure under the SJ-R project.
In FY2025, with the establishment of Sompo Wellbeing Inc., we created the operational foundations for the SOMPO Wellbeing segment, whose mission is to address the three concerns that people face in terms of health, nursing care, and retirement finance. We built our presence in this segment through capital and business alliances with the RIZAP Group and with Kamakura Shinsho. In FY2026, under the leadership of business CEO Yasuhiro Oba, we will try to expand touchpoints with customers and pursue related business initiatives by integrating these foundations with the operational strengths of Sompo Himawari Life Insurance and Sompo Care.
Elsewhere, we are accelerating efforts to create new businesses that can drive future growth. In FY2025, we acquired Japanese agricultural company Nousouken, whose work focuses on addressing food security issues related to factors such as climate change. We will continue to develop new businesses proactively in FY2026 to help realize SOMPO’s Purpose.
We continue to sell down our strategic shareholdings as part of our efforts to fund growth investments. We are reallocating capital raised from such divestments to M&A projects that build scale in the P&C insurance business, promote regional diversification, or fill in missing pieces in the wellbeing segment. We see acquisitions as a means of sustaining growth rather than as an end. We will only move ahead with a deal if it meets stringent criteria in terms of its strategic and economic rationale.
As we move forward in building these foundations, our aim is to achieve adjusted profit by FY2030 of three times the average recorded over the previous management plan period (¥250 billion in FY2021–2023) and a market capitalization three times its level as of the end of March 2024 (around ¥3.1 trillion).
Maximizing human capital in an era of human-AI collaboration
Fully capitalizing on digital, data, and AI assets is undoubtedly the key to accelerating business growth. It will not only dramatically boost productivity—it will also create original value distinctive to Sompo in the customer experience while evolving our business model to the next level. We see the role of human beings becoming even more vital as evolving technologies change the way we collaborate with AI. While AI handles routine tasks, we see our source of competitiveness arising from the abilities only people possess, in terms of creating solutions from scratch and having the enthusiasm and empathy to engage with others.
We established the ¥30 billion SOMPO Human Capital Fund in FY2024 to further our investment in human resources as the Group’s key source of non-financial capital. We will continue to embody the SOMPO’s Values of Integrity, Self-Motivation, and Diversity by actively cultivated talented professionals who can create genuine value in this emerging era of human-AI collaboration.
Starting in FY2026, we have also introduced a stock compensation program for employees of Group companies in Japan to reward and incentivize them to embrace personal growth development challenges that will also benefit the company and society. We see this fostering a positive cycle in which employees can take ownership of value-added creation, share that value with other shareholders, and contribute to the development of their asset formation.
Dive into Challenges, Drive our Evolution
In April 2027, to further reinforce the Group cohesion that is indispensable to moving toward the next stage of growth, we will change our company name from Sompo Holdings, Inc. to Sompo Group, Inc. In addition, to express the Group’s commitment to supporting every employee in taking on challenges and being confident in their limitless potential, we have redefined the Group Vision as “The vision to unlock possibilities,” as well as reformulated the SOMPO’s Materiality that sets out the material issues to be addressed by the Group. Under “ONE SOMPO” approach, our shared goal is to realize the company’s Purpose while achieving sustainable growth, both by deepening collaboration between the holding and operating companies and across divisional boundaries, and by speeding up processes to enable employees to take on challenges in ways that promote personal growth.
The origins of the SOMPO Group date back to 1888, with the establishment of Tokyo Fire Insurance as Japan’s first insurer of fire-related risks, with a spirit of “hikeshi,” or dealing with fires. Protecting people from fire was a major issue for Japanese society at the time, expressed in the hikeshi spirit of acting for the sake of people and society. We have since grown by addressing social issues through insurance, nursing care, and other services.
Japan, the SOMPO Group’s home market, is an advanced country that faces a range of issues stemming from the growing intensity of natural disasters, a shrinking population, and other factors. I am not pessimistic, however. On the contrary, I prefer to see opportunities for the Group to lead the world in developing better solutions that will address such societal issues.
Examples of ways the Group can offer value that is unique and priceless—even by global standards—include the HIKESHI DNA 2030 Project of Sompo Japan Insurance, which offers seamless solutions spanning everything from disaster prevention and mitigation to recovery support, and the nursing care services of Sompo Care that draw on advanced technology to boost quality and productivity. By building diverse businesses that span countries and regions to offer solutions to address issues, the Group will evolve into a platform for global resilience and wellbeing. This is our vision for 2030 and beyond.
The key to making this vision a reality is for every Group employee to consider thoroughly the genuine needs of customers and to embrace this challenge in our founding spirit of acting for the sake of people and society. Teamwork and collaboration across both borders and divisions will also be essential here. To underpin this, we must foster a corporate culture grounded in frank, fearless discussions based on data and concepts, as well as in celebrating success in embracing challenges, which emphasizes “Harmony, but not Conformity.”
Our aim is to make SOMPO a platform for global resilience and wellbeing. Fully committed to the spirit of acting for the sake of people and society, I will drive our evolution into a corporate group that addresses diverse social issues and consistently provides solutions that meet the genuine needs of customers. I will also continue to give my full support to employees—the driving force behind this mission—as they drive into challenges.
Group CEO Director, President and
Representative Executive Officer
