TOKYO: When Japanese life insurers were selling their products a decade ago, they reckoned they could easily earn 5% or more a year on their investments to make the payouts they guaranteed to policyholders.
Now, with interest rates near zero and the Tokyo stock market trading at a quarter of its 1989 level, those now-generous promised yields are coming back to haunt them, putting the industry and perhaps even the whole financial system at risk.
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