Japan's global payment card brand, JCB, launched the world's first JCB brand "Debit Card" in Taiwan in cooperation with Hua Nan Bank, a JCB partner since 2000.
The card has already become popular in Taiwan with over 9 million users in a working population of 11 million people. This is a very high penetration rate.
JCB believes that the success of its cards in Taiwan is because it is a low-risk product as it directly debits from the bank account.
JCB International Taiwan has been adopting various measures to penetrate the competitive debit card market in Taiwan.
Yuichiro Komuro, Director and President, JCB International Taiwan Co. Ltd., said: "The challenge for banks in promoting debit cards is their low rate of operation. The customers do not get extra benefits by using them. Therefore, we have decided to issue a debit card with high gains and user convenience. For example, JCB provides equivalent facilities to debit card customers for using it at airports and dining at a luxury hotel. In terms of user convenience, the card is equipped with varied functions such as "J/Speedy", non-contact IC settlement function. It is also equipped with traffic based IC settlement function called "TSCC". We well realize the customers' need and have issues a high-value debit card. We aim to make this card profitable for both us and our partner issuing bank."
Currently, JCB is working other financial institutions and corporations for debit card issuance in Japan.
The company has started to promote the debit card actively beyond Taiwan, which will lead to development of the debit card market in the region.
And, these changes are not taking place in the banking sector alone.
The Japanese motorbike company, Yamaha, is promoting safe riding in Indonesia.
"YSRS", Yamaha Safe Riding Science for kid's session was held in Gogor, West Java in Indonesia. This safety riding school for children was featured at Yamaha Asean Cup Race Event at the Sentul International Circuit.
500 children in the age group of 6-10 years from 20 schools, participated and gained new experience of learning traffic rules, and practiced riding safety.
YSRS also invited policewomen who helped to provide knowledge about road safety.
During the session, Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha's global brand ambassador and two-time MotoGP World Champion, also promoted safe riding.
Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP rider, Yamaha Factory Racing, "I started to race when I was 3 years old. My dad was mechanic. When I turned 10, I was thinking of moving to a professional level. I knew I was good, I was fast. Motorbikes are wonderful, you know, the feeling that you get when you are riding... it is a sport, sometimes it can be dangerous. So, you have to train a lot to get certain skills to prevent accidents. Safety on the road is very important, because you don't ride alone; you have to ride with the traffic. So, it's important that Yamaha is doing this project to teach young kids to stay safe when they're riding."
During Yamaha Asean Cup Race event, Japanese professional moto trial riders Kenichi Kuroyama and Fumitaka Nozaki were invited to perform for the young children.
Kenichi Kuroyama, said: "The demand for motorbikes in Indonesia is very high, but the traffic conditions are not good. I hope that children will master safe riding from a young age through Yamaha event and will become excellent riders in the future. I hope everyone wears helmets and learns safe riding skills."
Yamaha is the only Japanese brand that produces a kid's model "PW50" - motorbike for the youth.
YSRS is an international event which was started in 2005 from Thailand and has been already been held in several ASEAN countries which include Vietnam, Malaysia and India.
Yamaha plans to introduce this initiative to the youth of other cities.
