Aflac Inc. (AFL)

Aflac sells supplemental health and life insurance in Japan and the United States. Supplemental means it sits on top of whatever primary cover the customer already has, and pays cash directly to the policyholder for the out-of-pocket costs a medical event leaves behind. The parent company was incorporated in Georgia in 1973 and the group is licensed in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, several US territories and Japan.

Two segments, and Japan is the larger

Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S.. The filing describes Aflac Japan as the principal contributor to consolidated earnings and as the largest insurer in Japan in cancer and medical policies in force. A Corporate and other category holds the parent company, reinsurance activity including the group's own reinsurer, and intercompany eliminations.

Aflac Japan

Aflac Japan's core is what the filing calls third sector insurance: supplemental products designed to help consumers pay medical and non-medical costs that are not reimbursed under Japan's national health insurance system. The filing gives the reason for the demand, that changes in Japan's economy and an ageing population have put pressure on the national health care system, shifting more cost to consumers who in turn want products that help them manage it.

Cancer insurance is where the company started in Japan, in 1974, and the filing says it remains the number one provider there. The policies pay a lump sum on first diagnosis and then fixed daily benefits for hospital stays and outpatient treatment, plus surgical and convalescent benefits. A new cancer product, Miraito, launched in March 2025, lets the customer pick the cover they want. Alongside it, a support service runs with the policyholder from the point cancer is suspected through treatment and recovery. Medical insurance pays for hospitalisation, surgery and outpatient treatment, with lump sums for cancer, heart attack and stroke; a new product, Anshin Palette, launched in December 2025. Nursing care insurance covers out-of-pocket costs under the public nursing care system.

First sector products sit beside that core. Prepare Smart is whole life with a low cash surrender value and a discount for non-smokers. GIFT is term life that pays the family a fixed sum every month after a breadwinner dies or is seriously disabled. Tsumitasu, launched in June 2024, is built for retirement saving with nursing care cover attached. WAYS lets the holder convert part of the life cover into medical, nursing care or annuity benefits at a set age, and a child endowment pays a lump sum when a child starts high school and an annuity through four years of college.

How Japan reaches the customer

The traditional channel was about 6,300 sales agencies at the end of 2025, employing roughly 112,000 licensed sales associates. On top of that sit three alliances, all counted within the affiliated corporate agencies channel. Dai-ichi Life, from 2001, has around 37,000 representatives offering Aflac cancer products. Japan Post Group, from 2008 and strengthened in 2013, sells the cancer product through about 20,000 post office outlets, and Japan Post Insurance adds 76 corporate sales branches and 626 individual sales service departments. Daido Life, from 2013, has around 3,700 representatives selling mainly to small and medium-sized business owners and their staff. And at the end of 2025 Aflac Japan had agreements with about 90 percent of all banks in Japan.

Aflac U.S.

Accident cover paying lump sums for accidental death, dismemberment and specific injuries and fixed benefits for hospital stays; short-term disability individually and in groups, and long-term disability in groups; cancer insurance on an individual basis; critical illness cover for events such as heart attack and stroke; hospital indemnity paying a fixed amount on hospitalisation; network dental and vision on a group basis with fixed-benefit dental individually; and term and whole life. Individual policies are portable, so the holder keeps the cover at generally the same premium after leaving the employer or group, and are typically guaranteed renewable for life, or to age 75 for short-term disability.

Two channels carry it. Career agents, who are independent contractors paid commission, sell to small businesses with between three and 99 employees. Brokers sell to employers with 100 or more, typically averaging 1,000 or more. Across both, an average of about 5,300 agents and brokers were actively producing business each week in 2025. Sales cluster in the fourth quarter because that is when most employers run open enrolment, and the filing says this typically puts over a third of Aflac U.S. total sales in that quarter.

From Aflac's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing