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BENEFIT PLANS
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2026
Defined Benefit Plans and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans Disclosures [Abstract]  
BENEFIT PLANS BENEFIT PLANS
The Company has funded defined benefit plans in Japan and the U.S.; however, future benefits under the U.S. plan were frozen effective January 1, 2024. In January 2025, the Company purchased a nonparticipating single premium group annuity contract from an external insurer to settle its obligations under the U.S. defined pension plan and paid to the insurer the related annuity premium. As a result, the Company recognized a settlement charge of $55 million in the first quarter of 2025. Effective April 1, 2025, the external insurer began making annuity payments to plan participants, and substantially all of the outstanding benefit obligations under the plan were transferred to the external insurer and/or the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Therefore, the Company is no longer responsible for those obligations.

The Company also maintains non-qualified, unfunded supplemental retirement plans that provide defined pension benefits in excess of limits imposed by federal tax law for certain Japanese, U.S. and former employees. However, future benefits under the Company's Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan and Retirement Plan for Senior Officers were frozen effective January 1, 2024, provided that actively employed participants may continue to accrue service toward eligibility for early retirement benefits or delayed early retirement benefits.
Pension expenses are included in acquisition and operating expenses in the consolidated statements of earnings, which includes other components of net periodic pension costs (other than service costs) of $1 million and $57 million for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, respectively. Total net periodic benefit cost includes the following components:
Three Months Ended March 31,
Pension Benefits
JapanU.S.
(In millions)2026202520262025
Components of net periodic benefit cost:
Service cost$2 $3 $0 $0 
Interest cost2 2 2 8 
Expected return on plan assets(3)(2)0 (5)
Amortization of net actuarial (gain) loss0 0 0 (1)
Settlement (gain) loss0 0 0 55 
Net periodic benefit cost (credit)$1 $3 $2 $57 
During the three months ended March 31, 2026, Aflac Japan contributed approximately $6 million (using the weighted-average Japanese yen/U.S. dollar exchange rate for the three-month period ended March 31, 2026) to the Japanese funded defined benefit plan, and Aflac U.S. did not make a contribution to the U.S. funded defined benefit plan.

For additional information regarding the Company's Japanese and U.S. benefit plans, see Note 13 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in the 2025 Annual Report.