Japan: Insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Japan's insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports) fell 0.39 percentage points on 2024 (from 13.25% to 12.86%).

Across the 28 yearly changes before that (1997 to 2024), the average change was +0.34 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.88 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.8 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 3.04 percentage points in 2020 and the biggest yearly fall was 1.17 percentage points in 2005. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is upward, about 0.79 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 93% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 15.6% for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 1.15%, against 2.08% for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

In 2025, Japan had the 24th highest value of the 134 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Japan in the 2025 ranking

• Dominica — 21st of 134: 13.03%
• Oman — 22nd of 134: 12.95%
• New Zealand — 23rd of 134: 12.92%
• Hong Kong SAR, China — 25th of 134: 12.62%
• Timor-Leste — 26th of 134: 12.43%
• Dominican Republic — 27th of 134: 12.3%

What this measures

Financial services covers services related to financial intermediation, financial risk management, liquidity transformation or auxiliary financial activities. It also includes insurance and pension scheme services which are services related to providing life insurance and annuities, non-life insurance, reinsurance, pensions, standardised guarantees and auxiliary services to insurance, pension schemes, and standardised guarantee schemes. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of service imports which are commercial services provided by non-residents to residents.

Limitations: Balance of payments statistics, the main source of information on international trade in services, have many weaknesses. Disaggregation of important components may be limited and varies considerably across countries. There are inconsistencies in the methods used to report items. And the recording of major flows as net items is common (for example, insurance transactions are often recorded as premiums less claims). These factors contribute to a downward bias in the value of the service trade reported in the balance of payments. Efforts are being made to improve the coverage, quality, and consistency of these data.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 30 values

Insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports) in nearby economies

• Australia — 2.45% (2025)
• Brunei Darussalam — 2.33% (2025)
• Cambodia — 8.93% (2025)
• China — 3.05% (2025)
• Fiji — 7.88% (2024)
• French Polynesia — 5.2% (2016)
• Hong Kong SAR, China — 12.62% (2025)
• Indonesia — 9.53% (2025)
• Kiribati

More private sector & trade data for Japan

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 33.68% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$755.55 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$738.34 billion (2025)
• Agricultural raw materials imports (% of merchandise imports) — 1.58% (2025)
• Food imports (% of merchandise imports) — 9.79% (2025)
• Fuel imports (% of merchandise imports) — 19.55% (2025)
• Manufactures imports (% of merchandise imports) — 59.93% (2025)
• Ores and metals imports (% of merchandise imports) — 6.98% (2025)
• Merchandise imports from economies in the Arab World (% of total merchandise imports) — 12.01% (2023)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Japan's insurance and financial services (% of commercial service imports)?

12.86% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1996?

It is up 9.05 percentage points from 3.81% in 1996. The highest value was 13.25% in 2024 and the lowest 3.34% in 2005.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TM.VAL.INSF.ZS.WT, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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