| Japan's automobile insurance industry was completely deregulated in July 1998, in accordance with the agreement made by the Japanese and United States (U.S.) governments in 1996. This dissertation was designed to take advantage of this opportunity and explore the cross-national differences in risk perceptions and insurance-purchasing decisions by focusing on the evolution of consumer behavior in the Japanese automobile insurance market during deregulation.; Chapter 2 examines the risk environments faced by citizens in the two countries, in the domain of traffic safety. It contrasts accident risks from several points of view and discusses possible sources of differences in risk perceptions and insurance-purchasing decisions. Chapter 3 sets the context for understanding the Japanese non-life insurance market, by describing the history of the regulatory framework and the resulting market structure. It also considers recent changes to a less regulated market.; Chapter 4 explores cross-national differences in automobile risk perceptions and insurance-consuming decisions in Japan and the U.S. before deregulation. It compares survey results from 42 Japanese subjects in 1997 with those from 74 U.S. subjects (Austin, 1996). Systematic differences were observed in reasons given for having automobile insurance, judged probabilities of accidents, and judged probabilities of being at fault.; Historically, Japanese people typically describe buying insurance as a “waste of money.” Chapter 5 examines the source of this perception by evaluating the subjective expected values of insurance in the 1998 survey. Expected values for collision coverage and fire insurance tended to be smaller than their associated premiums, but much larger for liability coverage. The discussion relates these results to the “waste of money” perception, and considers the relevant social context of the Japanese non-life insurance market.; Chapter 6 examines the results from three surveys conducted in Japan in 1997, 1998 and 1999, in order to assess initial impacts of deregulation. Although major changes in consumer risk perceptions, and general belief and decision factors about insurance were not detected, systematic changes in consumer understanding of insurance deregulation were found. |
