Taiwan swipe card with porn star image sells out in 4 hours

A special edition swipe card for Taiwan’s mass transit featuring the clothed image of a Japanese porn star sold out within hours overnight via a telephone hotline, despite a storm of opposition. Taiwan’s EasyCard Corp. said on its website that it sold its full run of 15,000 card sets by 4:18am Tuesday after phone orders started at midnight. The stored value cards — also used for convenience store purchases — feature images of Yui Hatano, a 27-year-old Japanese woman who local media say likes Taiwan and wants to help the card company’s charity donation scheme. Hatano, also popular in Japan, is pictured from the elbows up and clothed.

It’s culture worship, like when you’re young and collect cards with cartoon stars like Doraemon.

One unnamed Metro rider

Critics, including parents, politicians and women’s advocacy groups, campaigned against the cards, saying the images disrespect women and send inappropriate messages to children. Many stores declined to sell them, and the company ended up offering them via telephone hotline only. Japanese cultural icons commonly appear in children’s books and on items such as stationery and smartphone cases. With nearly 3 million arrivals last year, Taiwanese rank as the top source of tourism to Japan, which was also its colonizer for five decades before the end of World War II. The swipe card company apologized online for the dispute and pledged to do an internal review.

Taiwan Asia-Pacific