BENEFIT PLANS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

BENEFIT PLANS

9. BENEFIT PLANS

Our basic employee defined-benefit pension plans cover substantially all of our full-time employees in Japan and the United States. The components of retirement expense for the Japanese and U.S. pension plans were as follows:

	Three Months Ended September 30,								Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2011				2010				2011				2010
(In millions)	Japan		U.S.		Japan		U.S.		Japan		U.S.		Japan		U.S.
Components of net periodic benefit cost:
Service cost	$	5	$	4	$	4	$	3	$	13	$	11	$	11	$	9
Interest cost		1		3		1		3		4		11		3		10
Expected return on plan assets		(1)		(4)		(1)		(4)		(3)		(11)		(2)		(10)
Amortization of net actuarial loss		0		2		1		2		2		5		2		4
Net periodic benefit cost	$	5	$	5	$	5	$	4	$	16	$	16	$	14	$	13

During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, Aflac Japan contributed approximately $17 million (using the weighted-average yen/dollar exchange rate for the nine-month period ending September 30, 2011) to the Japanese pension plan, and Aflac U.S. contributed $20 million to the U.S. pension plan.

For additional information regarding our Japanese and U.S. benefit plans, see Note 13 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in our annual report to shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2010.