JALA is the umbrella body for the automotive leasing industry in Japan, with member associations covering the entire country. Nobuo Takagi, managing director of JALA, said: 'Members number in excess of 280 automotive leasing companies representing around 95% of the total number of leased vehicles in Japan.'

Sofico, a global provider of software for automotive leasing companies, maintains an extensive client base around the world, and established a Japanese operation in December last year. 

Shane Curran (Inset, Left), general manager and Representative director of Sofico Services Japan, said: 'We see the Japanese market as holding extremely important strategic significance for a company like Sofico. The Japanese market is quite large, but also very mature and very sophisticated. For us it was important to establish our credibility early and to be accepted by an organisation such as JALA is a great step forward for us. 

Curran said that Sofico was only the second foreign company to be accepted as a JALA member. 'Our approach to the Japanese market has been consistently to act with respect for the Japanese business approach and to understand that, in Japan, we must make every effort to behave as a Japanese organisation. We feel that our membership of JALA reflects our approach.

'Our key product, Miles, is an end-to-end solution that has been designed specifically for the automotive leasing market. We’ve enjoyed considerable success around the world in assisting leasing companies to run their businesses more efficiently and to lower their costs. 

'We’ve already made a substantial investment in the Japanese market to tailor the software to suit Japanese conditions. We’re hopeful that we can enjoy considerable success here,' he added.