Japan ordered four major non-life insurance companies to improve business practices in connection with anti-competitive activity that aimed to keep premiums high, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said last week.

The order was issued to Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, Sompo Japan Insurance, Tokio Marine & Nichido and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, Suzuki said.

The four had been asked to report to the regulator on whether they engaged in prior consultations with each other when preparing contracts for clients, domestic media have reported.

Statements from the four insurers said they take the government order seriously and will work to restore trust.

“With this order, we urged them to make it clear where management responsibility lies and to thoroughly revamp management controls,” Suzuki told reporters.

He said the four insurers engaged widely in activities that were incompatible with the spirit of Japan’s antitrust law.

“We will demand that each of these companies takes this matter seriously and seek thorough responses to prevent a recurrence.”

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; additional reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; editing by Christian Schmollinger and Edmund Klamann)