Skip to main content

DiDi and SoftBank to offer taxi-hailing service in Japan

China-based DiDi Chuxing will deploy its ride-matching app in Japan in partnership with investor SoftBank. The joint venture, DiDi Mobility Japan, intends to offer on-demand services and smart transportation to citizens and tourists in the autumn. Stephen Zhu, vice president of Didi Chuxing and CEO of DiDi Mobility Japan, says the new platform is intended to help taxi companies improve their efficiency, enhance user satisfaction and build more broad-based demand for taxi services. Through the agree
July 20, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
China-based DiDi Chuxing will deploy its ride-matching app in Japan in partnership with investor SoftBank. The joint venture, DiDi Mobility Japan, intends to offer on-demand services and smart transportation to citizens and tourists in the autumn.  


Stephen Zhu, vice president of Didi Chuxing and CEO of DiDi Mobility Japan, says the new platform is intended to help taxi companies improve their efficiency, enhance user satisfaction and build more broad-based demand for taxi services.

Through the agreement, DiDi will deliver its artificial intelligence-based transportation platform with SoftBank’s business base and advanced network infrastructure.

Additionally, the DiDi Greater China app will include new roaming features such as real-time in-app Chinese-Japanese instant message translation and local language customer support. Users from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will be able to use the app to hail taxis in their native language.

The trial will be available for riders, drivers and taxi operators in cities such as Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Tokyo.

Related Content

  • Optibus software rolled out across buses in Brazil's Porto Alegre
    September 14, 2023
    First Latin American city to use firm's software to plan and schedule entire bus fleet
  • InDrive moves into M&A with investment arm
    November 22, 2023
    Ride-share platform launches InDrive New Ventures to look at mobility start-ups
  • Bolt launches dockless e-scooters in Madrid
    August 16, 2019
    Bolt, the ride-share company which was formerly called Taxify, has launched electric kick scooters in central Madrid. The firm piloted the vehicles in Paris last year – making it the first to combine scooter-sharing and ride-hailing together in one mobile app, Bolt claims. “Beating the traffic is a big issue in cities like Madrid and a lot of trips are much more efficiently covered with an electric scooter rather than a car with a driver,” says Markus Villig, CEO and co-founder of Bolt. He says t
  • Flexibility, interoperability is key to future traffic management
    February 3, 2012
    Jon Taylor of Faber Maunsell and Tabatha Bailey of Transport for London describe how an unusual mix of traffic practitioners, researchers and industry are working together to build new tools for the future. As we face higher expectations for managing congestion from both citizens and politicians, and as more and more data is becoming available from new sources, our traffic management challenge is changing.