Another day, yet another Japanese adult platform being forced into compliance by Western payment processors, and this time FANZA have been struck once again.
Over the past few months, Western payment processors like VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, and American Express have been cracking down on businesses and distributors dealing with illicit pornographic material. Even platforms like NicoNico, which don’t allow such material, have been affected.
These payment processors demand stricter controls on pornography while allowing Western platforms like OnlyFans and Twitch to operate freely.
Rather than imposing censorship on their content, various Japanese commerce platforms such as Fantia, NicoNico and DLSite, one of the largest distributors of digital doujinshi have decided to suspend the use of these payment processors on their websites.
This means users can no longer use the likes of VISA or MasterCard to purchase goods or subscribe to creators on these platforms and now the latest platform to stand up to these authoritarian Western entities is FANZA, a subsidiary of DMM.
FANZA terminated their contract with Mastercard on July 21st, 2022, after the payment processor demanded alterations to the content featured on the platform. Now, nearly two years later, they have taken the same action with VISA.
As of June 14th, 2024 at 12PM FANZA has suspended VISA payments, leaving the likes of Japan’s domestic JCB cards as the only form of direct payment for purchasing doujinshi on the platform.
“Thank you for your continued patronage of this service. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the sudden notice, but Visa payments on FANZA Doujin will be temporarily suspended from 12:00 p.m. on Friday, June 14, 2024.
We apologize for the inconvenience, but we ask that customers who use Visa change to other payment methods. We are currently running a great DMM JCB Card campaign, so please consider taking advantage of this offer.”
As difficult as this sounds, this is ideally the best course of action if you’re one that actually favors such content.
Aside from the fact that such westerners destroy quite literally everything that they touch, demanding that everyone else in the world, across all nations and different cultures to conform to their standards on content to remain loyal to their monopolistic payment processors.
In the end, consumers would find it more advantageous to navigate through various challenges to access such material rather than face arbitrary censorship and removal by platforms like DLSite and FANZA. FANZA, a highly popular adult entertainment platform, offers a diverse array of erotic content including pornographic videos, games, eromanga, and opportunities to support Japanese content creators through purchases and subscriptions.
The notion that vendors should censor their extensive commercial material just to simplify purchasing is retarded, preserving authenticity and inventory is crucial.
Never mind the fact that consumers have the ability to skirt around these restrictions, as seen with DLSite’s removal of VISA and Mastercard, consumers can utilize services like DLPay which allows them to purchase points that can be easily redeemed on their account to purchase material, preserving access as if nothing had changed.
Similarly, this approach can be applied to FANZA, ensuring continued access to a wide range of erotic content and support for Japanese creators through alternative means.
For non-natives looking to continue purchasing content relatively freely on FANZA, the best approach is through DMM’s point store.
Interestingly, this store still accepts payments via VISA and American Express cards, though many users may prefer using PayPal instead. At DMM’s point store, you can buy specific amounts of DMM points, which can then be used to purchase and redeem content on FANZA. It’s almost as if nothing has changed at all.
Japan continues to produce the content that consumers desire, albeit with an extra precautionary step required to freely access goods and services through FANZA.
It’s impressive to see these Japanese companies sever ties with foreign card processors, which are increasingly bound by ESG initiatives that restrict or ban problematic content like pornography, except for platforms like OnlyFans, of course.
Thanks to the actions made by the likes of FANZA and DLSite, native Japanese netizens are finding ample motivation to abandon VISA and MasterCard in favor of their domestic JCB.
For us foreigners, however, accessing these services will require going through middle-man services to continue enjoying such content free from censorship.
