By Tohru Futami
In every market and in every sector, future-oriented businesses are rapidly driving digital transformation (DX). But change means risk—and that means some markets and sectors are more comfortable than others with the changes DX may bring them.
In Japan, organizations with great ambitions for driving DX often encounter barriers to change, especially in highly regulated industries such as insurance.
Overcoming these barriers takes a combination of empowered leadership, advanced technology, and the steady expertise of a collaborative partnership in embracing new and unexpected ways to work and to serve customers.
And when an organization gets transformation right, that can lead to change across entire sectors and around the world.
Digital Transformation and Social Change
In the two decades I’ve led information technology teams in Japan’s insurance sector, first at AIG and MetLife before I joined Aflac Japan in 2015, I’ve learned that the drive for DX, for introducing infrastructure and processes that improve the human experience, doesn’t come along often, and it doesn’t happen by chance.
In Japan, transformation leaders face headwinds, in both stringent regulations and a risk-averse business culture that approaches new business models with caution, as transformation always involves risk. But for any change agent, it’s essential to face risk without fear, to see resistance as an opportunity to improve the work and lives of our internal and external stakeholders.
All successful transformation depends on empathic leadership—the ability to take a human-centered, collaborative approach that ensures people always stay at the center of any decision making. When strong relationships are built with customers, employees, and partners, there’s no challenge a business can’t overcome.
Upgrading Traditions
Until recently, Japan’s insurance sector felt little pressure to update its technology and its business model. In this market, standard insurance operations maintained traditional manual processes based on inefficient paper-based procedures.
But the massive societal change of Japan’s rapidly aging population calls for fundamental reform. For Aflac Japan, that means expanding our service beyond life insurance to provide medical care and nursing care support to our customers.
In this context, our DX drive represents a giant shift. Introducing digital platforms, generative and agentic artificial intelligence (AI), and big data to automate our processes greatly enhances the experiences of our solicitors, agents, and customers. For individuals who can now file claims using their mobile devices instead of submitting paper forms and receive reimbursements on the same day or within one day instead of three or four days, the rationale for DX is self-explanatory.
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