From the front line of change, moving further forward together.

The Japanese chemical industry is entering a new phase of structural reorganization. Companies in this industry are now shifting toward a strategy focused on selectivity and the reallocation of resources, aiming to sharpen their competitive strengths rather than simply grow in size. This paper takes a broad, industry-wide perspective to organize the key issues that the top management must confront, as well as tier-specific approaches across the value chain. By doing so, it seeks to offer insights that may help companies as they consider future industry reorganization.

In July of this year, the “GENIUS Act” was enacted in the United States, marking a significant advancement in the regulatory frameworks for stablecoins across Japan, the European Union, and the United States. As each jurisdiction has developed its own framework through distinct approaches, an environment conducive to the entry of financial institutions and technology companies is gradually emerging. This paper organizes recent international regulatory developments relating to stablecoins and examines their implications for Japan’s pioneering framework. Part I provides a comparative overview of the regulatory architectures in the United States, Europe, and Japan, while Part II addresses issues concerning supervisory implementation and challenges for private-sector deployment.

Life insurance was originally born as a mechanism of mutual aid within small, close-knit communities—“visible” groups of people. In recent years, however, amid shifts in consumer behavior, its value as a daily essential and social infrastructure has begun to waver. The key to reversing this trend lies in re-radicalizing life insurance—bringing it back to its origins—and doing so by embedding protection seamlessly into everyday life. This article reexamines the role that life insurance should play in the future and presents a vision in which it becomes more indispensable to society than ever before.

Is a “Re-Radicalized” Future for Life Insurance Truly Achievable? While initiatives that depart from conventional trajectories face numerous challenges, many of these barriers can be overcome with existing technologies. By examining pioneering case studies, this article explores mechanisms for integrating insurance seamlessly into everyday life and identifies practical approaches to make such integration a reality. Furthermore, it considers the feasibility of monetization, aiming to sharpen the clarity of new business models for life insurance.