This episode of Coffee with the Council is brought to you by our podcast sponsors, Feroot and Jscrambler.

Ryoji Ihara: Hello, everyone! Welcome to this very special edition of the Coffee with the Council podcast. This podcast will be in Japanese only. For non-Japanese-speaking audience, this podcast will be transcribed and translated to English on the PCI SSC webpage. Now, let me switch over to Japanese. 

こちらから日本語で読んだり聞いたりできます。

Welcome, again, everyone and thank you for listening to the Coffee with the Council podcast. We are recording this in Japanese for the first time ever! My name is Ryoji Ihara, the former Regional Director for PCI Security Standards Council in Japan and South Korea. Today, I am very happy to introduce Junichi Tsuboi-san, the new Regional Director for Japan and South Korea. We are recording the podcast together. Actually, I am leaving PCI SSC after six years and I am in the process of handing over to Tsuboi-san. Hello, and welcome onboard, Tsuboi-san!

Junichi Tsuboi: Hello, Ihara-san. Thank you for your introduction of me. I am Junichi Tsuboi and very happy to meet with everyone via the Coffee with the Council podcast.

Ryoji Ihara: Thank you, Tsuboi-san. Firstly, can you briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your new role as Regional Director for Japan and South Korea?

Junichi Tsuboi: Thank you, Ihara-san. I joined PCI SSC at the end of January this year to take over your role and responsibilities (this is a lot of pressure for me!). I have 28 years of experience in the payments industry.

I started work at Diners Club in Japan and my role in the first five years was to prevent payments-related fraud. Then, I moved to American Express and my most recent job was at Mastercard. I spent most of my time in the sales department at those companies.

At PCI SSC, my major focus is to engage stakeholders in Japan and South Korea by communicating with them regularly. Our goal is to promote the importance of payment security using PCI standards, gain a common understanding among our stakeholders, and help our stakeholders to prevent payment security incidents by adopting our standards, like PCI DSS.

Ryoji Ihara: Thank you. I know you have many years of experience in the payments business. Based on your experience, can you share your perspectives on the payment industry? What issues or challenges are you seeing in Japan? Furthermore, what should be done to manage these issues?

Junichi Tsuboi: My first role was to prevent payment-related fraud. However, I have years of account management and sales experience promoting corporate/commercial cards and this experience will support my role at PCI SSC. This is because an important element of sales is engaging with my customers and gaining their trust. It is a similar concept for my role at PCI SSC. I believe this is the reason why PCI SSC hired me.

In the late 1990s when I used to work to prevent payment-related fraud, according to the announcement by Japan Consumer Credit Association, the fraud amount was less than JPY 20 billion (USD $135 million). However, this has increased to JPY 55 billion (USD $370 million) in the last year, unfortunately. The card fraud trend has changed completely, and I need to better understand the recent changes. 

By the way, Ihara-san, you have many years of experience as well. Do share with our audience what were the major issues when you were the Regional Director of PCI SSC over the past six years?

Ryoji Ihara: I joined PCI SSC in 2018 when PCI DSS became a part of Japan’s legal requirements. This applies to any organization in Japan that processes, stores or transmits payment data, based on the law (the Installment Sales Act) in Japan.

In those days, my immediate responsibilities were to support local stakeholders to implement PCI DSS to meet the law as well as to increase awareness about payment security. Since then, I have engaged with the payment brands, the QSAs, and other communities so that they have a better understanding about PCI standards.

What made you decide to apply to join PCI SSC, Tsuboi-san?

Junichi Tsuboi: Thank you for asking. When I resigned from my previous job, I really thought about what I wanted to do for my next chapter in life, and what kind of job will fit me. Finally, I found this position at PCI SSC which must lead the PCI community in Japan and South Korea. This job truly contributes to society and addresses one of the major issues (data security) that Japanese society is currently facing that needs to be resolved. I genuinely want to be involved in it. In addition, I believe my experiences in the payments industry are relevant to this role.

Ihara-san, can you share any good or interesting memories while working at PCI SSC?

Ryoji Ihara: Yes, I have had many memorable experiences through PCI SSC, and one of the good experiences was collaborating with local stakeholders to publish the Japanese version of the PCI DSS v4.0 documents. We were required to publish those documents with the highest quality of Japanese translation because it is directly linked to the local law. The QSAs through JCDSC (Japan Card Data Security Consortium) worked together to review the Japanese drafts of PCI DSS v4.0, which was provided by PCI SSC. The reviewed version was published on the PCI SSC website. This was a good model of collaboration between PCI SSC and local stakeholders.

Junichi Tsuboi: I see. There were a lot of memorable experiences. Our time is limited, and I have one final question for you. What are you going to do after you retire from PCI SSC? I think many stakeholders will be interested in this. 

Ryoji Ihara: I will have left PCI SSC when this podcast is released. After I leave, I would like to spend my time volunteering to support the payment industry, which I have worked in for a long time. I will also be volunteering in my favorite place, Okinawa (southern islands in Japan), to protect the natural heritage there.

Junichi Tsuboi: That’s great!

Ryoji Ihara: Finally, my last question to you, Tsuboi-san. Since this is the Coffee with the Council podcast, I would like to ask you what kind of coffee do you like? If you are not a coffee drinker, what other beverages do you like to drink?

My favorite coffee is called “American Coffee,” adding hot water to regular coffee. However, it becomes less stimulating and easier for me to drink a lot of it now. How about you?

Junichi Tsuboi: I love coffee very much and drink it every morning. My favorite is sour-tasting coffee like Kilimanjaro. However, I also love some alcohol at the end of the day, especially pure dry rice wine (Japanese sake). This is fantastic and makes me so happy, as you can imagine! Please let us drink together in the near future and I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Ryoji Ihara: Thank you, let’s get drinks together! And I wish you all the best at PCI SSC!

Junichi Tsuboi: Thank you, Ihara-san, and thank you, everyone, for listening to this Coffee with the Council episode. Finally, the PCI SSC Asia-Pacific Community Meeting will be in Bangkok, Thailand this year on 5 and 6 November. Do come and join us and I would love to meet you in person! Thank you, everyone!

This episode of Coffee with the Council is brought to you by our podcast sponsors, Feroot and Jscrambler.

Like what you’ve heard? Subscribe to PCI SSC’s “Coffee with the Council” podcast by visiting any of the following platforms: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Anchor, Castbox, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Stitcher, Audible, Overcast, or Pandora.