Focus on JCB, the internationally-renowned Japanese payment brand
JCB was created in Japan in 1961. The company was established to issue credit cards for Japanese citizens. It has since expanded mainly across Asia and is now accepted in more than 150 countries.
An international brand
JCB Co, Ltd is headquartered in Tokyo, with international offices across major Asian cities, and European offices in 6 European Metropolis/capitals as well as several more in USA. JCB started to expand globally in 1981 and is now recognized as a major international payment scheme.
JCB is the leading operator in Japan’s payment industry, driving development and strategy for 3 functions of their card business, from Japan :
Brand licensing
Expansion of the network of merchants and card issuance
Card issuing
Issuance of individual and business cards in Japan, and partnerships with domestic networks to increase card issuance globally
Merchants acquiring
JCB acts as sole-acquirer for all merchants in Japan; in addition to partnering with banks, financial institutions and national brands to enable JCB card acceptance in many countries outside Japan
Key facts 2024
- 18 issuing countries
- Acceptance in more than 160 countries
- Offices over 25 countries
In 2023 the number of cards issued for users hit 158 million and the transaction volume reached $346 billion while more than 49 million merchants now accept JCB cards
Protection and reliability
The highest priority for JCB is to protect cardholders and merchants through the development of secure standards and adoption of the latest regulations to keep data integrity, either for online or in-store transactions.
JCB is a member of EMVCo, the standards body in charge of issuing and maintaining EMV specifications, testing programs and best practices for the implementation of chip cards, terminals and online purchases.
JCB has implemented J/Smart for contact and contactless cards, providing safe payment environments for card transactions, and it is also involved in the implementation of security mechanisms such as J/Secure authentication for online shoppers, based upon EMVCo-based 3D-Secure specifications.
Premium services for merchants
As a leading merchant acquirer in Japan, JCB offers a wide range of solutions and services to merchants, and expands these towards various industries such as online shopping, education or public utilities.
It collaborates with other major payment brands to provide various payment options at merchants and enable efficiency in payment operations : global payment brands / contactless payments / E-money brands / QR-code payment services
Additionally, JCB, in collaboration with its own and other associate companies, delivers value-added services to help merchants set-up and operate their transaction processing infrastructure safely and efficiently. It offers the CARDNET service to process authorization and transaction data between card companies and merchants.
Other services enable merchants to generate new customers touchpoints, accept major payment methods, or transmit data from tax-free transactions made by inbound tourists to the National Tax Agency.
An innovative vision, to offer advanced, versatile payment solutions
JCB Tap on Mobile - AKA SoftPOS
SoftPOS enables merchants to transform their smartphones/tablets into contactless payment terminals, without the need to carry extra hardware for card acceptance.
To accept JCB transactions, SoftPOS providers must meet the JCB Tap on Mobile requirements. They must complete certification processes including applicable tests to obtain JCB Level 2 Type Approval. After receiving PCI security/product approval and L3 acquiring tests, providers are ready to deploy JCB Tap on Mobile-based solutions.
As a payment software leader, Alcinéo has developed JCB payment library, based on JCB Contactless specifications, delivering payment terminal providers with up-to-date, ready-to certify JCB Contactless kernel.
Alcinéo SoftPOS SDK has been certified with JCB Tap on Mobile, allowing SoftPOS application providers to easily deploy JCB-compliant solutions. – Find more information about our certified solution HERE.
For more information about the JCB kernel, contact us : contact@alcineo.com
Visit JCB official website.
EMV® is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries and an unregisteredtrademark elsewhere. The EMV trademark is owned by EMVCo, LLC.