Someone recommended it to me, and I signed up in 2016. A person from a life insurance company told me that we live in an age when one in two people gets cancer. I became uneasy. I signed up.
The monthly payment was about 6,500 yen for me and about 3,500 yen for my wife. Together, about 10,000 yen.
Back then I thought I was buying peace of mind.
It is a strange thing. Once you have the insurance, somehow you start to feel that you will not get cancer, or that your cancer will be cured. That cannot be true, and even I thought it was odd. Looking back now, maybe this was a device for paying money to make the worry go away.
Eight years later, in April 2024, I reviewed the contract. That was the first time I added up the total I had paid.
I decided on the review after talking with my wife. With her part (3,500 yen a month), it was 10,000 yen a month in total. The two of us agreed that we did not need it any more, and we decided to cancel both policies at the same time.
About 10,000 yen times 96 months equals about 970,000 yen.
Honestly, I was surprised. Eight years in which nothing happened. But the fact remained that we had paid 970,000 yen.
That was when I seriously thought for the first time. Keep going, or stop.
I thought about it from several angles. Cancer is a matter of a whole lifetime, and it does not have to be right now. I learned that treatment sometimes costs less than I imagined. There are public systems, but the way they work is hard to understand. The image created by the words advanced medical treatment and the reality are not always the same. Insurance is built not only on reason but also on feeling.
The more I looked into it, the more I saw that I had been deciding based only on worry.
When I Learned About the Medical Cost Cap
What made me review the cancer insurance was learning about kougaku ryouyouhi, the high-cost medical expense system. In Japan there is a system that puts a ceiling on what you pay yourself when medical costs get high.
It depends on your income, but for an ordinary income the monthly ceiling is about 80,000 to 90,000 yen. Even if you have cancer surgery, even if you stay in the hospital, you are not billed 1,000,000 yen at the counter.
When I learned this, a weight came off my shoulders a little. The image of cancer equals bankruptcy had been too strong in me. In reality, the system covers quite a large part of the cost.
The Cap on High Medical Costs Went Up in 2026
When I decided to cancel, the cap for a person with an ordinary income was in the 80,000 yen range a month. When I looked it up, I found that the cap went up in August 2026.
For people with a yearly income of about 3.7 million to 7.7 million yen, it went from 80,100 yen plus 1 percent to 85,800 yen plus 1 percent. For people with a yearly income of about 2.6 million to 3.7 million yen, it went from 57,600 yen to 61,500 yen. At the same time, a new cap was also made on the total you pay in one year, from August to July of the next year (from the review papers of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the guide of the Japan Health Insurance Association).
The cap went up. Even so, one thing has not changed. You do not pay the full cost of treatment at the counter.
How I Faced the Worry After I Quit
Honestly, the day after we cancelled I was a little uneasy. What if cancer is found right now, I thought.
But I thought it through calmly. For eight years I paid 10,000 yen every month, and nothing happened. With that 970,000 yen, even if I did get cancer, the first costs would be covered. There is also the high-cost medical expense system. Is there any point in keeping insurance for a risk that savings can handle?
My answer was no. At least for our household.
The 10,000 yen a month that was freed up now goes into tsumitate NISA, a tax-free investment account in Japan. I stopped the insurance and put that money into investments. The money I was paying to make the worry go away is now used to grow our assets. That change was a big one.
What I Think About the Sales Talk
One in two people gets cancer. This is a fact. But it is about a whole lifetime, not the chance of getting cancer this year.
When I looked it up, the share of men who have been diagnosed with cancer was 2.7 percent by age 49 and 7.2 percent by age 59. Over the ten years of the 50s, it goes up by about 4.5 points. The rise starts in the 60s. It is 19.8 percent by age 69, and 62.1 percent over a whole lifetime (from Cancer Statistics 2025, which brings together data from the National Cancer Center Japan). An insurance salesperson does not tell you numbers like these.
I think they are good at words that stir up worry. That is exactly why it mattered that I looked up the numbers myself. If you search online for cancer rates by age group, the data from the National Cancer Center Japan comes up. Looking at numbers makes you much calmer than the words of a salesperson.
Insurance gives peace of mind. But at the same time, it is a fixed cost.
When I thought about old age, this is what I thought. If it is really needed, I can face it then.
I chose to cancel.
Whether cancer insurance is needed is different for each person, I think. For someone with strong worry, it may have meaning. For someone with room in the household budget, it may bring peace of mind. For someone who wants lighter fixed costs, it may feel heavy.
For me it was reality, not worry.
I quit. But I do not know if this decision is the right answer. To me, insurance feels less like a product and more like a way of thinking.
If you are not sure, looking over all of your insurance once may be one way, I think. Your household budget, your age, the size of your worry. The answer is there.
Eight years, about 970,000 yen. How you take this number is up to each person, I think.
I think of it as the time when I was buying peace of mind. And now I have cut a fixed cost and chosen reality. That is my conclusion.
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