Manulife Japan’s Nationwide Sales Reorganization and Reinforcement Plan - The New Regional and Sales Offices Open Nationwide (April 1, 2003)











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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2003

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This press release was distributed in Japan, in Japanese only. The following translation is provided for information only.

Manulife Japan’s Nationwide Sales Reorganization and Reinforcement Plan
The New Regional and Sales Offices Open Nationwide

Tokyo - Manulife Life Insurance Company (Head Office: Chofu-shi, Tokyo, President & CEO Trevor Matthews) announced today the opening of 8 new Regional Offices throughout Japan. At the same time, Manulife will be opening new Sales Offices or Sub-Sales Offices located together with a number of the new Regional offices. These changes are part of a dramatic nationwide sales reorganization and reinforcement plan being implemented by Manulife in 2003.

The pillars of this plan are to establish the new Regional Office system and to adopt newly designed Sales/Sub-Sales Offices under each Regional Office to serve as the base for the daily sales activities of sales representatives and recruiting activities. Up to now, the company’s nationwide sales organization was comprised of 32 Branch Offices throughout Japan. This has been consolidated into 8 Regional Offices consisting of Hokkaido, Kita-Nippon, Kan-Shinetsu, Metropolitan Tokyo, Chubu, Kansai, Chu-Shikoku and Kyushu. Under the regional offices, sales and sub-sales offices will be placed aimed to highly improve the efficiency of the information channel between the headquarters and the sales offices nationwide. Accordingly, approx. 260 Sales and Sub-Sales Offices nationwide are planned to be innovated and enlarged, being consolidated into 153 offices.

As for the start of this nationwide sales reorganization and reinforcement plan, “Shibuya Sales Office” in TOKYO opened on the 17th of February as the model office for the new type of Sales Offices. On-site testing through actual operation has been undergone and accumulated operational know-how for this nationwide reorganization plan.

The newly opened Regional Offices will oversee the operation of Sales Offices for each region and newly appointed Regional Sales Directors will be assigned. Under each Regional Sales Director, responsible persons for administration, recruiting and training will be respectively assigned with assistants to function as the primary center for sales activities within the 8 regions.

Also, 6 Sales/Sub-Sales Offices will be newly opened together with respective Regional offices with the latest equipment and office design including intranet connection and phones with teleconference system etc. like Shibuya Model Sales Office. They will be enlarged by uniting several existing offices. These offices will also serve as the “model” for the Sales Offices within the region.

With the opening of new Regional and Sales/Sub-Sales Offices, the nationwide sales reorganization and reinforcement plan of Manulife will take a further step forward.

President Trevor Matthews commented that,
“We are very happy to have opened these offices in the major regions nationwide. Through these offices, and further enhancement of the sales reorganization and reinforcement plan, I firmly believe that the presence and recognition of Manulife will further be strengthened in each region.”

The Regional and Sales/Sub-Sales Offices opened are as below.

Regional Office	Sales/Sub-Sales Office	Address
Hokkaido Regional Office	Sapporo Sales Office	Odori, Chuo-ku, Sapporo-shi
Kita-Nippon Regional Office	Sendai Sales Office	Kokubuncho, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi
Kan-Shinetsu regional office	Omiya Sales Office	Sakuragi-cho, Ohmiya-ku, Saitama-shi
Metropolitan Tokyo Regional Office	Nagoya Sales Office	Kokuryo-cho, Chofu-shi
Chubu Regional Office		Nishiki, Naka-ku, Nagoya-shi
Kansai Regional Office	Osaka-kita Sales Office	Fukushima, Fukushima-ku, Osaka-shi
Chu-Shikoku Regional Office	Takamatsu Sub-Sales Office	Togiyamachi, Takamatsu-shi
Kyushu Regional Office	Fukuoka sub-sales office	Hakata-ekimae, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka-shi

Manulife Japan, a member company of the Manulife Financial headquartered in Canada, holds a top-class “AA+” credit rating from one of the world’s most prestigious credit rating agencies, Standard and Poor’s Co. (as of February 2003).

Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial services group operating in 15 countries and territories worldwide. Through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners, Manulife Financial offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services. Fund under management by Manulife Financial were JPY11,220billion (Cdn$146.2 billion) as at December 31, 2002.

Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '0945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.

For further inquiries, please contact:
Shimizu, PR Group
Manulife Life Insurance Company
TEL 0424-42-7076