No. “Fire insurance” covers damage to property caused not only by fire but also natural disasters and accidents. Pliant’s Tokyo office provides property and earthquake insurance for non-Japanese people who own property in Japan. Our property insurance covers a wide range of disasters and accidents, such as fire, lightning, explosion, hail, snow, typhoon, flood, and theft. Japan is a country with many natural disasters. For example, Japan has 26 typhoons every year on average. Also, in recent years, extreme weather such as heavy snow and sudden downpours have become common, and we need to have property insurance to prepare for such risks. In addition, many earthquakes occur in Japan. We highly recommend taking out earthquake insurance together with property insurance. Pliant offers service in English, Chinese and Korean. It is our pleasure to assist customers who are not familiar with the Japanese language.
Yes, you can take out our property insurance even if you are not able to come to Japan due to the pandemic.
You cannot take out a policy through the website, but there is no need to apply in person. Please email us or fill out this inquiry form here. We will contact you by email and suggest several plans based on the information you provide. The application process can be completed by email, and you do not need to send us any forms or documents through the mail. Moreover, premium payments can be made by credit card. Please see this page for more information.
We suggest that you take out property insurance with facility liability special coverage. Facility liability special coverage is mainly for landlords, and provides compensation when an accident caused by a defect in the building or by the performance of duties in the building results in legal liability for landlords.
The earthquake insurance system is managed by both the Japanese government and by insurance companies. Only taking out earthquake insurance is not possible: you need to have property insurance in order to get earthquake insurance. Therefore, the earthquake insurance amount is written separately from the property insurance amount. For more information on the earthquake insurance system in Japan, please visit the Ministry of Finance website here.
“Earthquake insurance” compensates for damages such as fire, collapse, and burial caused by earthquake, eruption, and tsunami, and needs to be taken out with property insurance. “Earthquake fire cost insurance ”pays 5% of the property insurance amount when the building is half-burnt or more, or the household goods are completely burned, due to a fire caused by an earthquake ( except for cases where fire damage occurs after the insured object is lost due to an earthquake, etc. ). This earthquake fire cost insurance is automatically included in all property insurance plans.
Compensation for “water damage” covers damage caused by floods and landslides resulting from a typhoon or heavy rain. “Water leakage” insurance compensates for damage caused by water leakage due to a problem with the water supply or drainage equipment, or an accident that occurs in a neighbor’s room. However, damage caused by wind, hail, snow, and flood accidents is excluded from “water leakage” insurance; moreover, damage caused to the water supply and drainage equipment itself will not be compensated.
Extra expense insurance is paid separately from damage insurance when an accident actually occurs and damage insurance money is paid. The “extra expense insurance” is 10% of the damage insurance amount, and the limit is 1 million yen. For example, you can use it for extra expenses such as accommodation expenses when your house burns is damaged due to a fire and you need to stay at a hotel. * “No extra expense insurance” is optional. * If you have extra expense insurance, it will be available only when the damage insurance money is paid due to fire, lightning, or explosion.
Yes, but please note that if you select a plan without “water damage” coverage, you will not be covered. Compensation for “water damage” covers damage caused by floods and landslides resulting from a typhoon or heavy rain if one of the following applies:
・There is damage to the insured property or household goods amounting to 30% or more of the replacement price.
・There is damage to the insured property as a result of flooding in the home. (“Flooding in the home” means flooding of 45 or more centimeters from the floor.)
Even if your property is located on a hill, there is a risk of water damage from landslides caused by typhoons or sudden storms. Also, due to an increase in extreme weather such as sudden heavy rains, flood damage in urban areas caused by overflowing sewage has become more common in recent years. On average, Japan has 26 typhoons every year. For these reasons, we recommend that you get insurance for water damage.
The price you paid for the property includes land price. The appraisal value in the quotation is based on the replacement cost to rebuild a property of the same structure and quality. Since the land price in urban areas such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya is quite expensive, the price that you paid for the property tends to be much higher than the appraisal value of your property.
Accident recurrence prevention cost” covers the cost of preventing the accident from recurring when you receive compensation for a fire, lightning, rupture, explosion, or theft. (You can claim the amount that has been paid within 180 days of the date of the accident. Moreover, the compensation is up to 200,000 yen per accident.)Examples: The cost of installing a surveillance camera because there was a theft, or the cost of installing a household sprinkler or replacing a gas stove with an IH cooking stove because there was a fire.
If there is damage to a nearby property or household goods caused by a fire from your property, you are not legally liable for the damage, but“ spreading fire damage cover” compensates for damage to nearby property or household goods.
On June 16, 2021, the General Insurance Rating Organization of Japan (GIROJ) announced that they will raise the national average “reference net premium rate,” which is a guideline for property insurance premiums for individuals, by 10.9%.
The reason for the increase is that insurance claims payments are increasing rapidly due to a series of natural disasters. Accordingly, insurance companies have revised their premiums effective October 1, 2022, and premiums are rising. In addition, they also announced that the maximum property insurance term will be shortened from 10 years to 5 years.
This is the third increase in the last four years, and considering the possibility that premiums will be revised in the future due to the frequent occurrence of natural disasters, we recommend that you purchase insurance for as long a period as possible.
Frozen pipe damage is covered by our basic property insurance plan.