Good evening everyone. My name is Satoru Komiya. Thank you very much for participating in this conference call today. I also thank you for your continuous support to Tokio Marine. In starting this management session, I would like to start by introducing the summary of 2021 results, and also some messages from the management based on the 2021 results. Please turn to page three. We have three key messages which we wanted to convey to you today. Until now, we have been diversifying risks globally and also trying to take in the high growth momentum from the international business. Such was the global risk diversification strategy that we have created and have been executing so far. At the same time as a global insurance company, by accumulating wisdom and passion of international talent from domestic, overseas, and group companies, we have been nurturing and polishing our group management capabilities.
In the telephone conference held last year in November, I said that we are starting to see the fruit of our labor as a result of such effort in full scale. Looking at the fiscal 2021 results, I believe it delivers on the outcome of those efforts in financial terms. I also believe that we can continue to deliver such results beyond fiscal 2022, and feel the urge that we have to continue to deliver such results. I would like to pick up some points specifically one by one. The first point is on the fiscal 2021 results. Adjusted Net Income was JPY 578.3 billion, year-on-year +145%. Recently in February, we had just updated the fiscal year projections to be JPY 560 billion.
Even against this upwardly revised projection, the actual results this time had outperformed. Of course, this high level of profit does include one-off factors such as benign natural catastrophes, reduction in auto accidents under the COVID-19 environment, and capital gain from North America. These are not the main factors of high profit. Rather, the main factor is that the fundamentals of the business is strong. Going on to the second point, we expect fiscal 2022 to continue the strong momentum and forecasting adjusted net income of JPY 550 billion, up 9% on normalized basis or up 5% excluding the FX factor. Profit growth will be driven by increasing underwriting profit, supported by rate increases and the expansion of underwriting, as well as by increase in income gains and better capabilities in expanding underwriting.
Expansion in income gains will come from the bigger asset base to manage, which will result in higher income gains. The third point is that we believe profit growth should come in tandem with expansion of shareholder return. In fact, we have decided that DPS for 2021 is raised to JPY 255, which is up JPY 10 since November projection. It's also up JPY 55 year-over-year. DPS for 2022 is projected to be JPY 300, which is up JPY 45 year-over-year, realizing dividend growth consistent with the strong profit growth. Regarding capital, we will continue to execute disciplined capital management, and the most recently calculated ESR in March was 128%, which we believe to be a comfortable capital level.
As for share repurchase, our policy now is to spend JPY 100 billion for share buyback within fiscal 2022 in a flexible manner. In fact, today, we have approved spending of JPY 50 billion as the first step. Now, I would like to explain about these points in more details. Please turn to page four. Starting with top line. After fiscal 2021 results, net premiums written increased by 4.4%. Life insurance premiums increased by 0.4%. Both of which outperformed the annual projections, showing strong fundamentals. Projecting fiscal 2022, net premiums written is expected to increase by 3.8% year-on-year, driven by rate hike and expansion of underwriting.
In life insurance premiums, although we are expecting an increase in the cancellations of corporate insurance, our fundamentals is still strong, projecting 0.5% increase in top line. Next, I'd like to talk about adjusted net profits. Please turn to page five. Fiscal 2021 adjusted net income being JPY 578.3 billion. This was an outperformance even compared to the fiscal year 2021 full year projections, as I have said already. Looking into these results in more detail, our TMNS top line was strong as expected. For net incurred losses, although there was an increase in provision for foreign currency denominated reserves due to depreciation of yen, we had lower than expected net incurred losses for auto and decline in large losses. Netting out the two sides, adjusted net income outperformed the February guideline.
In the international business, who concludes their fiscal year in December, we had already reflected major subsidiaries fiscal 2021 annual performance on flash report basis to be factored into the February guidance, which was an upwardly revised since the original projections. Since then, we confirmed that other locations businesses also did well. The actual adjusted net income for the year outperformed the projection. These are the actual 2021 results. Now I would like to explain about the normalized basis results excluding one-off factors. Please turn to page six. The adjusted net income on a normalized basis after taking out transient factors such as normal, natural catastrophes, COVID impact, and capital gains in North America from the actual adjusted net income for fiscal year 2021 of JPY 578.3 billion would be JPY 505.4 billion.
Compared to normalized income in fiscal year 2020, this is an increase of 13.13% year-over-year. Here again, the underlying trend is strong and favorable. Let me turn to the full year forecast for fiscal 2022 on page seven. Group projections for adjusted net income for fiscal year 2022 is JPY 550 billion, up 9% year-on-year on a normalized basis or up 5% excluding foreign exchange. This I have covered already. This slide will give you a breakdown. TMNS in Japan, shown in blue, up 5% with continued improvement in fire profitability and expansion of specialty insurance as a driver. International business in orange. Year-on-year increase of 13% is projected with improvement in underwriting profits, with disciplined underwriting, including rate increase and expansion of investment income as drivers.
For January to March, first quarter for the international business, we have seen in flash reports that showed promising performance. As you can see, management believes the global risk diversification strategy and integrated group management has finally began to bear fruit on a full scale. We will not be complacent with what we have achieved, and we will stay on our toes going forward. We will continue to increase group profits and ROE in fiscal year 2022 and beyond. The management team has renewed its commitment as such. That is a topic for next week's IR briefing. That is all for me. Thank you for your attention.
Komiya, thank you very much. Next, Mr. Kenji Okada will take you through our capital policy.
This is Kenji Okada, CFO. I will cover shareholder returns on page eight.
Our policy is to make shareholder return basically through dividend and to raise DPS sustainably in line with profit growth. So far, the company has stated that once we stably achieve JPY 500 billion or more in adjusted net income and about 12% in adjusted ROE, dividend payout ratio will be raised to a level that is on par with global peers or to 50%. Last November, with confidence in our profit growth, we announced to bring the timing to raise dividend payout ratio to 50% forward to fiscal year 2023 and increase dividend cost consistent with this move. Meanwhile, DPS for fiscal year 2021 was raised by JPY 10 from November 2021 projections to JPY 255.
This revision is due to the fact that Adjusted Net Income for fiscal year 2021 was JPY 578.3 billion, which is a significant increase from the profit guidance of JPY 490 billion for the year. As a result, DPS in fiscal year 2021 is up JPY 55 year-over-year. Due to A, expansion of sources of funding for dividends thanks to profit growth, and B, raising the payout ratio to 48.5% in fiscal year 2022 as an interim step before reaching 50%, DPS in fiscal year 2022 is decided at JPY 300, up JPY 45 year-over-year. The company is confident in profit growth beyond fiscal year 2023 and after raising payout ratio to 50%.
With moving average expansion of source for dividend as the driver, we will continue to strive to achieve DPS growth in two aspects. One, in terms of pace of dividend growth rate, and two, probability of realizing profit growth. Next is on capital stock adjustments. We will execute our capital policy in a disciplined manner. In other words, capital stock adjustment is to be done in the form of share buyback by taking into account various aspects comprehensively, such as the ESR level, M&A pipeline, business environment, ROE target, among others. This policy remains unchanged. In the meantime, however, the scheme we introduced in fiscal year 2021 of JPY -100 billion X will be discontinued in fiscal year 2022, as we said in November of last year.
Our plan for fiscal 2022 is, while continuing business investment and additional risk-taking that contribute to increase in ROE, flexibly implement share buyback of JPY 100 billion for the full year since ESR is currently at 128%, which is a comparable level. Today, as a first step, we made a resolution for a JPY 50 billion in share buyback. The company will steadily execute our management strategy, work to raise EPS and ROE by suppressing volatility, and thereby respond to the expectations of the capital market. This is our thinking, and your continued support and understanding is very much appreciated. That is all for me.