Insurance payouts for Hyogo Prefecture hailstorm reach ¥56.4 billion

Insurance payouts for Hyogo Prefecture hailstorm reach ¥56.4 billion | Insurance Business Asia

Catastrophe & Flood

Insurance payouts for Hyogo Prefecture hailstorm reach ¥56.4 billion

Data covers vehicle damage, fire insurance, and miscellaneous casualty insurance

Catastrophe & Flood

By
Roxanne Libatique

The General Insurance Association of Japan (GIAJ) has reported that insurance claims from the hailstorm in Hyogo Prefecture on April 16 have reached ¥56.4 billion as of May 31.

The figures, compiled from GIAJ member companies and the Foreign Non-Life Insurance Association of Japan, provide a comprehensive overview of the claims paid out.

Hailstorm-related insurance claims in Hyogo Prefecture

The specific claims data are as follows:

Vehicle damage: 81,021 claims were accepted for vehicle damage, with 79,468 resulting in payments totalling ¥31.4 billion
Fire insurance: 40,861 fire insurance claims were accepted, and 39,529 claims were paid, totalling ¥24.7 billion
Miscellaneous casualty insurance: This category, which includes personal accident insurance, saw 270 accepted claims, with 241 claims paid, totalling ¥297 million

These numbers reflect all requests for damage investigations, insurance coverage inquiries, and policyholder consultations.

The report includes data from both GIAJ and the Foreign Non-Life Insurance Association of Japan.

Claims across different prefectures are summarised as follows:

Niigata Prefecture: submitted 25,395 claims, with 15,605 claims paid, amounting to ¥12.9 billion
Toyama Prefecture: filed 34,512 claims, with 22,828 claims paid, totalling ¥17.1 billion
Ishikawa Prefecture: reported the highest number with 54,426 claims, and 38,445 claims paid, amounting to ¥41.5 billion
Fukui Prefecture: had 3,924 claims, with 2,008 claims paid, totalling ¥1.3 billion
Other areas: combined submitted 10,006 claims, with payouts totalling ¥1.7 billion

In total, 81,544 claims were settled from 115,171 completed investigations out of 128,263 filed claims.

This places the Noto Peninsula earthquake seventh in terms of total insurance payments for earthquakes in Japan. Historical comparisons include the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, with payouts of ¥1.3 trillion for over 826,000 claims, and the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, which saw payments of nearly ¥391 billion.

According to Nippon’s report, the premium increase is driven by significant payouts for natural disasters and rising costs for home repairs.