It is a great honor for us that the General Insurance Association of Japan (GIAJ) will host the IUMI 2017 Tokyo Conference for the first time since 2006.

While this will be the 5th occasion for the conference to be held in Tokyo, the year 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the GIAJ. Therefore, it is our great pleasure that the historic and distinguished IUMI Conference will be back in Tokyo on such a commemorative year for us, and we look forward to welcoming as many of our marine insurance colleagues from around the world as possible.

The history of general insurance in Japan goes back to the 19th century. Founded in 1878, the first general insurance company in Japan began to sell cargo insurance in 1879 and hull insurance in 1883. Therefore, one of the reasons we warmly welcome the IUMI Conference is that, historically speaking, marine insurance is the origin of the general insurance industry in Japan.