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To make matters worse, Japan's population is aging at a rapid rate. And because it costs more to provide health care to an aging population, Japan's health care system is under even greater pressure. As a result, costs are being shifted to consumers in the form of greater out-of-pocket expenses and health care insurance premiums, adding to the financial strain on consumers. Copayments have increased since the mid-1980s and consumers are paying more out of their own pockets for health care than ever before.
Aflac Japan has responded to consumers' changing needs with valued product offerings at affordable prices. We believe our products will continue to become more and more valuable as consumers take control of and seek solutions to their health care needs.
Everything begins with our products. Our goal is to address consumer needs with affordable products they can apply to their lives. When we listen to consumers, we hear that living benefits are what they seek. And our internal research has indicated that our two principal products, cancer life and medical insurance, remain the products consumers are interested in buying.
Aflac Japan's stand-alone medical product, EVER, is well-positioned in the market to offer a basic level of hospitalization coverage with the most affordable premium in the industry. To further meet the needs of medical insurance buyers in Japan, we developed two new versions of EVER in 2004: EVER Half and EVER Bonus. EVER Half is a whole-life medical policy with benefits similar to the original EVER product. With EVER Half, premiums are cut in half when the policyholder reaches age 60 or 65. EVER Bonus has all of the same features of EVER Half, but also provides a bonus payment every 10 years unless the hospitalization benefit was paid for 10 or more consecutive days. In addition, EVER Bonus provides a death benefit and a cash surrender value. We began offering EVER Half and EVER Bonus in early 2005.
In addition to expanding our medical product line in 2004, we also introduced a new version of Rider Wide, which provides for benefits upon the occurrence of heart attack or stroke. And we introduced two products designed specifically for the needs of female consumers: Lady's Rider to our 21st Century Cancer and Lady's MAX, a combination of Lady's Rider and our popular Rider MAX product.
Aflac's distribution remains one of the strongest and most operationally efficient in Japan. Currently, about 25% of Japanese households are covered under an Aflac policy. Yet we still believe we have a long way to go. To further reach the market, we will continue expanding our distribution system.
Our sales channel of affiliated corporate agencies is well-positioned to further penetrate the very large payroll market. However, there has been little employment growth in large worksites following more than a decade of a struggling economy. As a result, many of our affiliated corporate agencies are using new and innovative sales techniques to reach consumers outside of their traditional markets. Aflac Japan is also accelerating the development of new agencies, primarily individual agencies, in order to meet the needs of individuals at home and through small businesses. During 2004, we recruited nearly 4,200 new agencies, which exceeded our target for the year.
We also moved to strengthen Aflac's relationships with banks in 2004 through the introduction of a fixed-annuity product. We anticipate that the banking sales channel for our principal products will be opened in 2007 at the latest. And we believe that enhancing our marketing relationships with banks will put us in a strong position when the bank channel is deregulated. We are also continuing to reach consumers through our strategic marketing alliance with Dai-ichi Life. Even though Dai-ichi Life's sales of our product declined sharply in 2004, it still sold 244,400 cancer life policies for the year and remains an important part of our distribution system.
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