Aon plc will install Masahito (Max) Hirai as its next chief executive for Japan on June 30, 2026, replacing Tatsuya Yamamoto, who moves into an advisory role to help ease the handover. The announcement, made May 20, positions Hirai to take charge of one of the firm’s key Asian markets at a time when Japanese businesses are contending with a widening set of operational and financial exposures. Hirai will carry responsibility for the direction and performance of Aon’s Japan operations, including client service delivery and long-term growth targets. He will sit on the North Asia leadership team and report to Qin Lu, the region’s head.
Hirai’s professional background spans more than three decades across the global insurance sector. He began his career at Tokio Marine in Japan and later held senior posts in South America, North America, and Asia. He currently runs Tokio Marine’s Asia Region as CEO, a position that covers both life and non-life operations across Southeast Asia and India. Lu pointed to the breadth of that experience as central to the hiring decision. “Max brings deep market insight, strong leadership capability, and a clear focus on clients. His global business experience and collaborative leadership style position him well to build on our strong momentum in Japan and advance our Aon United strategy – helping clients and colleagues navigate an increasingly complex risk environment,” Lu said. Hirai, for his part, framed the move as a long-anticipated opportunity. “I’m honoured to take on this role at an exciting time for the Japan market, where there is significant opportunity ahead. I have long respected Aon’s strong position and contributions to clients in Japan and look forward to working closely with colleagues to further strengthen our business in the market,” Hirai said.
The leadership change unfolds against a backdrop documented in Aon’s 2025 Global Risk Management Survey, published Feb. 12, 2026, which canvassed nearly 3,000 risk managers, C-suite leaders, and executives from 63 countries. The Japan-specific findings draw a picture of organisations under pressure from multiple directions simultaneously. Cyberattacks and data breaches held the top position in Japan’s risk rankings, mirroring the global pattern. Below that, supply chain and distribution failure came in second, driven in part by weather disruptions and geopolitical shifts that have forced companies to revisit how and where they source goods. Weather and natural disasters, geopolitical volatility, and business interruption filled out the top five. Exchange rate fluctuation and product liability and recall also appeared in the top 10 – risks with direct financial consequences that the data bear out: 47.6% of Japanese respondents reported losses tied to currency movement, while 63.6% recorded losses from product liability or recall events.
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Formally speaking, Japanese organisations compare favourably with their global counterparts on risk infrastructure. Some 74.7% maintain a dedicated risk management and insurance department, against a global rate of 68.4%. Three-quarters measure total insurable risk costs, and 83.3% say those costs have been climbing. The numbers shift, however, when the question turns to actual preparedness for specific exposures. For cyber risk – the category ranked most threatening – 27.2% of respondents said they had assessed the risk, 22.3% had a risk management plan in place, and just 12.6% had developed continuity plans. The picture for supply chain disruption and natural disasters is similarly uneven, with assessment and planning rates clustered in the low-to-mid twenties percentagewise.
