In yet another blow to Japanese artistic expression, Surugaya, a prominent Japanese retailer specializing in otaku hobbyists goods such as video games, doujinshi, trading cards, and other such merchandise ranging from literature, figures and erotica has indefinitely halted the sale of adult products, likely due to pressure from Western payment processors.
Announced on May 19, 2025, this suspension underscores the continued tension between Japan’s creative freedoms and the restrictive standards enforced by entities such as VISA and Mastercard.
Surugaya initially cited “system maintenance” as the reason for the suspension, noting that certain products were temporarily unavailable. However, in a subsequent statement released through Talos Systems, its e-commerce partner, the company acknowledged that “a situation has arisen that requires discussions with providers regarding payment methods for adult products,” effectively confirming that their wide catalog of mature items will remain off their digital shelves for now.
Surugaya echoed a familiar sentiment in their own statement, noting, “We have always handled the products in question in the same manner as other products.” However, they added that their current focus is on communicating with customers and could not provide a specific timeline for when adult content might return, that of course is saying if at all.
The subtext is clear: maintaining their vendor status with VISA and Mastercard takes precedence, and a full return of the affected products is uncertain.
Surugaya’s carefully worded statement all but confirms the pressure from credit card companies enforcing restrictive policies on what they deem “problematic” content. Though the company reiterated its neutral stance toward adult material, the reality is clear: their options are severely limited.
Caught between maintaining access to major payment processors and upholding their “customer-first philosophy,” Surugaya faces a no-win scenario, they must either purge a significant portion of their erotic inventory or risk losing support from Visa and Mastercard which collectively dominate Japan’s payment ecosystem.
Although no companies were named outright, this situation follows a now-familiar pattern: VISA and Mastercard pressuring Japanese retailers and platforms under the banner of “brand protection.”
DLsite, Japan’s premier digital doujinshi store, previously faced payment suspensions over lolicon content, media featuring, petite, youthful anime characters deliberately misconstrued by foreigners as resembling real life children.
DLsite was only able to restore Visa payments after geo-blocking lolicon content from international users. Ironically, shota content, depicting young male characters in the same stylized fashion remain available overseas.
This double standard raises questions about the supposed moral logic behind VISA’s policies. If the concern is truly about the perceived resemblance to real life minors, why is one genre deemed unacceptable while the other is quietly ignored? It exposes the inconsistency and arguably the performative nature of their so-called “brand protection” efforts.
Probably because VISA’s figureheads likely molest little boys themselves, real ones as opposed to fictional creations printed on paper.
Other major retailers such as Melonbooks and Toranoana have likewise been forced to purge adult doujinshi with controversial themes under similar pressure. Digital platforms like Denpasoft, FANZA, and even fan-patronage services like Fantia and Skeb have also seen disruptions, all due to Visa’s ongoing crackdown on Japanese erotic content.
Surugaya’s situation is especially concerning due to the breadth of its inventory, which includes second-hand video games, anime merchandise, dakimakura (hug pillows), and a vast collection of doujinshi, much of it adult in nature. These items aren’t underground or illicit; they are fully legal and culturally significant, representing a key part of Japan’s creative and fan-driven industries.
And yet, foreign financial corporations are now effectively deciding which aspects of Japanese media can be bought and sold even within Japan’s own borders.
At the heart of this cultural overreach is often the controversy surrounding lolicon, a niche but legal genre in Japan that has drawn increased ire from Westerners imposing their morality upon the Japanese.
These critics frequently conflate stylized, fictional portrayals with actual child abuse, overlooking the artistic context of fictional media where the concept of age is simply an arbitrary detail used to drive the story, after all, drawings don’t age or have real identities.
In doing so, they also dilute the severity of terms like “pedophile” by applying them broadly to anime fans, inadvertently trivializing genuine instances of child exploitation by redirecting outrage at fictional content.
This highlights a glaring inconsistency and the performative nature of their ethical stance.
Even major corporations like Nintendo have not escaped this trend. Nintendo of America, in particular, has now become notorious for blocking Western releases of games containing suggestive yet fully legal fanservice content aimed at heterosexual audiences, while also tightening restrictions on titles featuring so-called “child-like” anime characters under the guise of “brand protection.”
This pattern of censorship, driven by values that clash with Japanese creative norms, is unfolding across retail and publishing alike.
Surugaya’s newly imposed restrictions represent just the latest chapter in a broader cultural battle. This issue transcends mere payment processing, it’s about control. For Surugaya, the outlook is grim. Talos Systems has signaled plans to implement “specific product handling rules” to resume sales, a thinly veiled way of saying they’ll have to remove “offensive” erotic content to appease such payment providers.
While pragmatic, this capitulation steadily chips away at Japan’s creative independence, forcing retailers to place global financial compliance above cultural expression. As one of Japan’s largest retailers for otaku goods, Surugaya’s temporary online suspension of erotica sends a chilling warning: no platform will ever be safe from the reach of Western puritanism.
This financial stranglehold imposed by Western payment giants is nothing short of a modern colonization of Japanese artistic freedom. Unless Japan finds a way to detach its creative industries from the whims of foreign financial institutions, especially since VISA and MasterCard together control roughly two-thirds of Japan’s payment market, the future of adult doujinshi, eroge, and countless other subcultures remains grim.
Japanese creators and fans have long condemned this trend as cultural imperialism, with prominent voices like Yoko Taro warning of its damaging impact on artistic freedom.
Until global payment processors and Western platforms respect Japan’s cultural context, or better yet, until Japan enacts laws compelling foreign payment platforms to permit transactions for content fully legal in Japan cases like Surugaya’s will only multiply, leaving creators and fans caught in the crossfire of a moral crusade blind to the fact that this art is pure fiction.
Surugaya may be the latest target, but it certainly won’t be the last.
