Samsung financial units to open joint Tokyo office; Samsung Fire returns to Japan after 8 years

Samsung's financial affiliates are setting up a shared office in Tokyo where four subsidiaries — Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire, Samsung Securities and Samsung Asset Management — will operate under one roof. The move marks Samsung Fire's return to Japan eight years after it withdrew from the market, and reflects the group's ambition to monitor shifts in Japan's alternative investment market and aging-driven financial demand on the ground.

Samsung's financial arm will hold an opening reception at the Samsung Electronics Japan building in Iidabashi, Chiyoda-gu, Tokyo, on Nov. 9, according to financial industry sources Wednesday. Working-level staff assigned to local operations, rather than chief executives, are expected to attend. Samsung plans to consolidate its financial affiliates on a single floor of the building to boost inter-affiliate collaboration and deepen ties with local financial firms.

Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Securities, which already occupy the building, will merge their office spaces. The two companies have handled local market research and project support. Samsung Fire plans to open its Tokyo office in the first half of next year, and Samsung Asset Management is also pursuing an opening next year. The group said it will subsequently consider hiring local staff and obtaining the necessary business licenses.

Samsung Fire is returning to Japan's financial market after eight years away. The insurer opened an office in Japan in 1994 but shut it in 2019 after limited business results. In recent years it has expanded operations in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Vietnam, while increasing equity stakes and partnerships in advanced markets such as the United Kingdom. Last year it raised its stake in British insurer Canopius to 40 percent, and through its Singapore reinsurance unit Samsung Re it is pursuing broader Asia-Pacific business expansion, including in Japan and Australia. Some analysts say the Tokyo office reopening is an extension of that overseas diversification strategy.

The group's interest in Japan centers on two themes: alternative investments and aging. Japan's alternative investment market — spanning mergers and acquisitions and real estate — has drawn global attention, and Japanese financial firms, which have grappled with an aging population longer than South Korea, offer a useful strategic reference. Samsung Life Insurance is studying how local life insurers have structured products to address aging, while Samsung Securities is examining the asset management strategies of Japanese brokerages.

The move also aligns with a broader overseas expansion push. At its earnings presentation in August, Samsung Life Insurance said it was seeking merger and acquisition opportunities in Asia and the United States and would gradually increase alternative investments. On Tuesday, it completed a $1.5 billion overseas hybrid bond issuance.

"Japan is home to large non-life insurers such as Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, so we expect to be able to benchmark business practices in the Japanese financial market," a Samsung financial affiliate official said. "We plan to approach this as a research exercise at first."