Asian insurers are playing hardball with reinsurers over renewal terms, to the point that the April renewal season for Japan, India and Korea has had to be put back a month. Japan is leading the push to force the predominantly European reinsurers to cut back their increases.

Practically all Japanese risks were meant to have been renewed by April 1, but analysts say this year’s negotiations have been so difficult that delays in renewals became inevitable. While Indian and Korean insurers have also stretched out the haggling past the April 1 deadline, Japan is the major problem.

Japan’s international trading culture is built around the art of long negotiation and occasional refusals to settle if the deal isn’t sufficiently “balanced”. Australia’s minerals companies, in particular, can testify to the ability of Japanese negotiators to insist that suppliers “share the pain” when market downturns occur.

The Japanese insurers, reportedly following the lead of Tokio Marine & Fire, are insisting that the 20-30% rises being imposed by the reinsurers are too high. They reportedly want rates rises closer to 10%, which would put them out of balance with the rest of the insurance world. But the Japanese negotiators are insisting that what they are prepared to pay is just as important as what the reinsurers want them to pay. Hence the delays, which are expected to be at least four weeks.

Negotiations in other parts of Asia have also progressed slowly and reinsurers have indicated that the massive Indian and Korean markets will be late with their new treaties as the haggling continues for a much longer period than usual.