was a Japanese business executive, former president of

Nippon Life Insurance , also known as or is the largest Japanese life insurance company by revenue. The company was founded in 1889 as the ''Nippon Life Assurance Co., Inc.'' In structure it is a mutual company. It first paid policyholder dividends in 1898. Ov ...

, and conferred the Grand Cordon of the

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...

Career

Gentaro Kawase was born in

Ōmihachiman 260px, City Hall 260px, Traditional buildings Preservation Area is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 82,233 in 34747 households and a population density of 570 persons per km². The total area ...

Shiga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,412,916 (1 October 2015) and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to the nort ...

.Gentaro Kawase
/ref> He graduated from Hikone Commercial College (later,

Shiga University , or is a national university in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, with campuses in the cities of Ōtsu and Hikone. Founded in 1874, it was chartered as a university in 1949. Faculties & Graduate Schools Shiga University has three faculties, the Fac ...

), entered

in 1937 and moved up through the ranks to the level of manager of securities department, chief treasurer in Tokyo, manager of related business. In 1981, he became the vice president of

and the president of Nippon Life Insurance in 1982.The Book of 100-year History of Nippon Life Insurance / Shibusawa Sashi Database
/ref> He led Nippon Life Insurance to the largest in the world in all 4 indicators, namely insurance premium income, total assets, total amount of new contracts and total amount of insurance in force, as the full year business result of 1987–88. In 1989, he became the chairman of the board of directors of Nippon Life Insurance. From 1996 to 1998, he was the senior adviser and honorary chairman of Nippon Life Insurance. From 1987 until 1994, he served as the vice-chairman of Kansai Economic Federation. In 1988, he was conferred the Grand Cordon of the

.Gentaro Kawase passed away. / SHIKOKOKU NEWS
/ref> He died at the hospital in

Takarazuka, Hyōgo 270px, Takarazuka City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Takarazuka city center The kanji (UTF-8 code FA1016), which is part of Takarazuka's official name (), is not available on all systems. (It can be entered in Wikipedia with HTML character & ...

at 86.

References

External links

Interview with Gentaro Kawase, president of Nihon Seimei Hoken
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawase, Gentaro 1916 births 2003 deaths People from Shiga Prefecture Japanese chief executives