Taipei EasyCard Corp (悠遊卡) yesterday evening scrambled to recall its “Angel” version of two cards intended for a set featuring Yui Hatano, an actress in the Japanese adult video industry, after netizens reported that the image had been used on one of Hatano’s productions.
The company said Hatano came to Taiwan for a photography shoot, but due to a lack of appropriate pictures, it used a photograph provided by a Japanese company, without knowing it had been used elsewhere.
All of the cards in the series are to be retrieved and a redesign done, the company said.
Photo courtesy of the EasyCard Corp
The planned limited-edition series has drawn mixed reviews.
According to sources within the company, the decision was made after employee suggestions met with the approval of EasyCard chairman Tai Chi-chuan (戴季全).
However, the move has drawn criticism from educators and parents, who said the images would be detrimental to children.
As there would be no age restrictions on the purchase of the cards and they would be available at all four major convenience store chains, an education organization called for the company to put an age limit on sales and restrict the cards to certain channels.
Humanistic Education Foundation deputy executive director Hsieh Shu-mei (謝淑美) said that despite the availability of “sensory stimulating” pictures on the Internet, using an image of an actress in the adult video industry on EasyCards would exceed the appropriate level of knowledge that should be made available to children.
The company should take into account its social responsibility and limit the channels and groups able to purchase such cards, Hsieh said.
University of Taipei Department of Early Childhood Education associate professor Lin Pei-jung (林佩蓉) said that putting an image of the actress on EasyCards could affect the mindset of children and make them think that the commercialization of women is normal.
According to local media, parents held differing views on the issue, with some saying the availability of EasyCards would make it a strange platform for such pictures and suggested a seal to cover the picture, while others said that the picture on the cards would be acceptable as it was not overtly revealing and it was simply a marketing strategy targeting a certain group.
Others said the company might be breaching its own rules that customized cards must not involve violent, sexual or any content that might disturb “public order and culture.”
The company yesterday said that there would not be any nudity on the cards and called on the public to view the products with a healthy mindset.
The cards would hold great value as a collector’s item and would go on sale on Tuesday next week, the company said, adding that there would be 15,000 sets, with each set containing two cards,.
All proceeds from the sales of the limited-edition cards would go to charity, it said.
Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who appointed Tai in March last year, appeared surprised when reporters raised the issue while he was attending a meeting of community officials.
Ko said he told Tai to increase EasyCard Corp’s business by 100 percent and left the details up to him, but he expressed doubt that the special cards would help, especially with women accounting for 65 to 75 percent of EasyCard users.
The touch-and-go IC ticket can be used for the Taipei MRT, bus services, designated car parks and some stores, and the company also issues special-edition cards featuring cartoon figures popular among collectors.
The Taipei City Government, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp, Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank and 12 bus companies in Taipei are major shareholders of EasyCard Corp, while the chairman is appointed by the city’s mayor.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS