How to become an Insurance Sales Representative
Also called: Life insurance sales representative, General insurance sales representative
Visits homes and businesses to introduce and recommend insurance products that suit each person's lifestyle and circumstances.
Main tasks
- Sharing updates such as new products
- Role-playing sales conversations with colleagues
- Making appointments for visits
- Organising the materials to take on visits
- Visiting homes and businesses
- Designing and proposing products that suit the customer's family and local circumstances
- Finding out about customers' life events and using that information
- Handling the paperwork for contracts
- Dealing with customers who visit the office or phone
- Communicating with customers by video call and similar tools
- Writing a daily log after returning to the office
- Phoning to make appointments for the following days outside normal hours
- Holding meetings with the branch manager and other managers
- Sharing information with colleagues and managers (such as setting sales targets)
- Attending the insurance industry's common training programme
- Taking over, visiting and building up customers, companies and areas left without a representative
- Reviewing customers' cover against the latest products and providing after-sales service
- Visiting customers regularly and providing aftercare
- Taking the necessary steps when an insured event happens
- Hiring, training and assessing staff
Workers in this job say university or high school is common. From job tag's survey of people in each job, who could give several answers. It shows what workers see as common, not how many workers hold each level.
How to become one
No particular education or qualification is required to start, but to sell insurance you must pass the life insurance general course exam (Life Insurance Association of Japan) or the general insurance agent general exam (General Insurance Association of Japan) and register as a life insurance agent or general insurance agent. In life insurance sales, after passing the general course exam you can take more advanced, step-by-step specialist training through industry bodies and earn senior titles such as Life Consultant, Senior Life Consultant and Total Life Consultant. In general insurance sales, as well as the general exam there are exams run by the industry body such as the General Insurance University specialist course exam and consulting course exam. A related qualification is the 'financial planning skills' certificate (FP ginoushi) under the ginou kentei (national trade skills test) set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. It can take more than 10 years to be able to propose and sell products that truly fit each customer's lifestyle and preferences. You need product knowledge such as basic terms, policy terms and conditions and procedures, plus knowledge of tax, social insurance such as public pensions and health insurance, and employee benefit schemes. To build trust with customers, sociability and persistence matter, along with communication skills and the understanding to grasp exactly what customers need.
Ways in
- Vocational college, junior college, kosen and trade skills tests: National trade skills test (技能検定). Certified skilled worker (技能士) grades that job tag lists for this job: 1級ファイナンシャル・プランニング技能士、2級ファイナンシャル・プランニング技能士、3級ファイナンシャル・プランニング技能士. The trade skills tests are national tests set under the Human Resources Development Promotion Act.
Pay · Job openings · AI and this job
- Average annual income: ¥5,405,900 Private sector only: employers with 10 or more staff. Public servants, such as public school teachers and police officers, are not in these figures.
- Monthly base pay (before overtime and bonus): median ¥291,000, and the middle half earn ¥217,500 to ¥425,900 a month.
- Pay measured for the wage survey group: Insurance sales representatives
- 2.16 job openings per applicant at Hello Work (2025). A current demand signal, not a projection. It counts only the jobs and job seekers registered at Hello Work, Japan's public employment offices, and many graduate and professional hires never pass through it.
- Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.
Related jobs
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Questions people ask
How do I become an Insurance Sales Representative?
No particular education or qualification is required to start, but to sell insurance you must pass the life insurance general course exam (Life Insurance Association of Japan) or the general insurance agent general exam (General Insurance Association of Japan) and register as a life insurance agent or general insurance agent. In life insurance sales, after passing the general course exam you can take more advanced, step-by-step specialist training through industry bodies and earn senior titles such as Life Consultant, Senior Life Consultant and Total Life Consultant. In general insurance sales, as well as the general exam there are exams run by the industry body such as the General Insurance University specialist course exam and consulting course exam. A related qualification is the 'financial planning skills' certificate (FP ginoushi) under the ginou kentei (national trade skills test) set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. It can take more than 10 years to be able to propose and sell products that truly fit each customer's lifestyle and preferences. You need product knowledge such as basic terms, policy terms and conditions and procedures, plus knowledge of tax, social insurance such as public pensions and health insurance, and employee benefit schemes. To build trust with customers, sociability and persistence matter, along with communication skills and the understanding to grasp exactly what customers need.
How much does an Insurance Sales Representative earn in Japan?
Average annual income in the private sector, bonus included, is ¥5,405,900 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). The figure is for the wage survey group Insurance sales representatives, which covers several jobs.
Do you need a degree to become an Insurance Sales Representative?
Not always. In this job's census occupation group, 53% of workers are university graduates. Ways in include: National trade skills test (技能検定).
Will AI change the work of an Insurance Sales Representative?
Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Basic Survey on Wage Structure (賃金構造基本統計調査) 2025: earnings by occupation (2025 survey (June 2025 pay, 2024 bonus), published 2026-03-24), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Employment Referrals for General Workers (一般職業紹介状況): Hello Work job-openings-to-applicants ratio by occupation (2025 annual (release of 2026-10-02)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Statistics Bureau of Japan (MIC): 2020 Population Census (令和2年国勢調査) detailed sample tabulation: employed by occupation, sex, age and education (2020 Census (tables 9-1 and 15-1, published 2022-12-27)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- JILPT (職業情報データベース) via MHLW job tag: job tag download data: 解説系 (descriptions, how to become, related qualifications) and 簡易版数値系 (interests, tasks, education) (解説系 ver.7.01 (2026-06-04); 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00 (2026-03-17)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx）ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx）ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.
Updated 4 October 2026