Foreign life insurance

I'm shopping for life insurance lately and this morning spoke with our insurance agent from AXA. He, as I expected, tried to sell us on whole life insurance, but I am taken aback by the exorbitant rates. The fact that I may be able to get some portion of the premium back at the end of 30 years is small consolation for them to suck my pockets dry during the interim.

So I hopped online this evening to see what sort of rates I can get for term life. It turns out that I'm looking at rates far lower than what I was quoted this morning, and the payout is almost 10 times higher for the same price.

The problem is whether I am only eligible for those rates if I live in the U.S. or whether I can buy the insurance while I am over here in Japan. If I end up staying in Japan, will I still be eligible to buy insurance sold in America? I don't see why it would make a difference, but it was my wife's concern.

Where can I get information about this?