Prudential Japan's misconduct list: debt is the biggest problem for sales staff

A drunk employee arrested for assaulting a security guard at a nightclub. A salesperson who borrowed money from a customer and never paid it back. These are two entries in an internal disciplinary list that Prudential Life Insurance Japan drew up in 2025.

The list, which we have obtained, records more than 40 cases of misconduct. One category stands out.

What does the list show?

By far the most common entry involves debt among Life Planners, the company's sales staff, known as LPs. One case involved a customer who had told the employee, "Think of me as your mother." The employee borrowed money from that customer and did not return it.

Another case shows how fast things can go wrong. An LP who joined in October 2023 ended up with roughly 1.7 million yen (about 11,000 dollars) in loans from major consumer lenders such as Acom, Promise and Lake.

Why was this person dismissed?

The employee was dismissed in a "yuji kaiko", a disciplinary dismissal that lets a worker resign in lieu of being fired, two years after joining. The reason: before joining, the person had borrowed about 500,000 yen from Acom and had not told the company.

The company does not allow anyone with consumer loans to join. The employee later explained the decision to investigators.

Is the pay system part of the problem?

Part of the explanation lies in how the job is set up. Apart from a handful of employees, the system can push salespeople into financial hardship and debt, our reporting finds.

What happened before?

The scandal came to light when Prudential Life Japan disclosed that employees had taken money from customers in improper dealings. Japan's Financial Services Agency, the country's financial regulator, then ordered the company to suspend operations until the end of January while it carries out a fundamental review of its practices.

This list is part of a series asking whether that overhaul is the right one, and how the company can rebuild.