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It was 1970 at the world’s fair in Osaka that Aflac Inc.’s founders saw the opportunity.
If Japanese people would wear respiratory masks, they would buy insurance, reasoned John Amos, one of three brothers who founded American Family Life Assurance Co. and the father of the current long-time CEO, Dan Amos.
As the World Expo returns to Osaka next year, Aflac is celebrating 50 years proving the founder’s hypothesis right.
From the Global Atlanta archives:
The company entered the Japanese market in 1974 and has become a leading provider of cancer insurance, life insurance and other supplementary policies to Japan’s aging population. About three-quarters of the Columbus, Ga.-based company’s revenues come from Japan, where its policies are sold in thousands of outlets including more than 300 banks and 20,000 Japan Post offices.
Members of the Georgia-Japan Legislative Caucus, staff at the consulate general of Japan and other supporters of the relationship traveled to Columbus June 12 to mark the occasion with a luncheon at the Aflac headquarters on Wynnton Road.
Welcoming the group, Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson said the city followed Aflac’s lead, engaging with its Japanese sister city of Kiryu in 1977, though he conceded that the city on the banks of the Chattahoochee is now trying to shore up its international engagement.
“Frankly, I think there are some things we need to up our game with. I think there are opportunities for us to make more on-site visits and to try to create a relationship that maybe digs a little deeper.”
In ending his speech, Mr. Henderson awarded Japanese Consul General Mio Maeda a key to the city.
“This is a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency if you need to get out,” the mayor joked.
The event was the latest in a flurry of 50-year milestones being celebrated in Georgia’s Japan business community in 2024. The Consulate General of Japan marked its own golden anniversary in June, and YKK, the zipper manufacturer that kick-started a wave of hundreds of Japanese companies coming to Georgia, highlighted 50 years at its Macon plant.
All this comes the year after a Georgia reception in Tokyo last October celebrated 50 years of recruiting investment and building trade in that market.
For Aflac, the story is one of commercial success mixed with growing friendship.
Maki Ishikawa, vice president of international affairs at Aflac International, says that even though the population is shrinking, Aflac is growing in Japan. With 23 million policies in force and 14 million policyholders, more than 10 percent of the Japanese population is touched by Aflac. Cancer insurance is the biggest seller, providing supplementary income that the country’s national health care system does not.
“As people get older, they have more frequent and complex medical treatments, which means they need more of what we offer,” Ms. Ishikawa, who visited Columbus from her base in Washington D.C.
Aflac Japan has nearly 5,000 employees and sells policies through channel partnerships with other insurers boasting tens of thousands of sales agents.
Malcolm Smith, vice president of state government relations, explained the history of the Aflac duck, a move designed to boost slumping name recognition when it debuted Jan. 1, 2000.
“It was a bit of a risky move,” Mr. Smith said. “With Prudential, the rock, and Pacific Life with the whale — strong, serious brands — to make fun of or make light of your own brand was a little bit risky.”
The campaign reportedly was dreamed up by an ad agency that had gone out to Central Park to brainstorm, where they heard a duck whose quack sounded like the company’s acronym, adopted in 1989 as it went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Aflac put down $5 million for the ad buy but was ready to pull the plug if it didn’t perform. It paid off: Three years later, sales had tripled and name recognition was at 94 percent in surveys, up from about 11 percent.
The Aflac duck in Japan, it turns out, is much less aggressive and irreverent, instead taking on the form of a cuter character who can be found performing various tasks, said Ms. Ishikawa.
“He doesn’t scream. That would maybe be too intense for Japanese people,” she said to a smiling crowd.
There is, however, a version of the duck who serves children, regardless of what language they speak.
My Special Aflac Duck is a stuffed animal designed to be responsive to touch and light. He vibrates gently and makes noises including beat-boxing, and he comes with medical accessories like a stethoscope and thermometer so pediatric cancer or sickle-cell patients can care for him.
As a companion, he helps the children stay calm and communicate with caregivers about what they’re going through. For kids enduring chemotherapy, he has a port to receive the medicine just like them. For sickle-cell patients, he has a blanket that turns into an art canvas — a nod to the way temperature changes can cause extreme pain in patients.
“You can imagine that this would help a child if they are preparing for a medical procedure,” said Buffy Swinehart, director of corporate social responsibility.
More than 30,000 My Special Aflac Ducks have been distributed across the U.S., Northern Ireland and Japan (1,600+) as part of Aflac’s ongoing philanthropic focus on childhood cancer. The company has donated $182 million to the cause since 1995, including funding the development of a pediatric cancer wing at Egleston Hospital, now Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
State Rep. Teri Anulewicz (D-Smyrna) and State Rep. David Knight (R-Griffin), outgoing chairs of the Georgia-Japan Legislative Caucus, also addressed the group.
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