Evaluation of the First Life Table Published in 1888 in Japan

Summary

Rikitaro Fujisawa received his doctor’s degree in mathematics at Strassburg Kaiser-Wilhelm University in 1886 and in the proceeding year he was appointed as a professor of Tokyo Imperial University. He published a paper on a life table in 1888 in a Tokyo Mathematics-Physics Journal intending to promote the life insurance business in the country. According to an article written by the president of one insurance company in the memorial book of Fujisawa the professor had intended to settle the insurance premium rates a little higher than the real figures in order to make secure a profit for life insurance enterprises. He also requested that companies make promises of refundment to the insured when a surplus had become clear. Data analysis of the life table seems to prove negative characteristics contrary to his intention and it likely resembles European tables at that time.