Japan Financial Services Agency reportedly says selling adult games alone shouldn’t be grounds for debanking. Issue still not recognized as widespread enough to warrant action, however
Japanese politician Zenko Kurishita recently discussed the matter with the FSA alongside affected creators.
Japanese free speech activist and former assemblyman Zenko Kurishita reported on October 28 that the country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) does not consider the sale of adult games alone to be a sufficient reason for financial institutions to deny developers banking services. This comes following Kurishita’s meeting with the agency over the ongoing issue of domestic creators facing so-called debanking.
Over the past few years, numerous independent adult game developers and indie studios in Japan have reported having their transactions blocked by domestic banks, particularly payments from overseas publishers related to international sales on platforms such as Steam. The cases so far have involved multiple different financial institutions, with some banks explicitly citing adult content as the issue, and others refusing to provide a specific reason. You can find a list of our coverage of individual cases at the bottom of this article.
To bring attention to the issue, Kurishita recently facilitated a meeting between the FSA and creators who have personally experienced debanking, allowing them to explain their circumstances directly to the agency. Among them was Mistilteinn, an indie adult game studio that had at one point been unable to access its overseas revenue for more than a year and a half, and even faced the issue of being taxed on income they were not able to receive.
According to Kurishita, the discussions revealed that the FSA and the Japanese government have not recognized debanking as a widespread problem. When he previously approached the agency about the issue, he was told that its Financial Services User Consultation Office had not received any inquiries about such cases. The FSA subsequently confirmed that it had received just one consultation concerning the issue over the past year.
Although decisions on whether to process transactions are generally left to individual financial institutions, the FSA indicated that it may consider taking action if it receives a sufficiently large number of complaints. However, the agency did not specify how many reports would qualify as significant enough.
Kurishita pointed out that he had already identified at least ten cases among creators just in his own network, suggesting that the low number of complaints received by the FSA may be due to a lack of awareness of the consultation service itself, or the difficulties involved in filing a complaint, rather than the limited scale of the problem. He argued that unless affected creators communicate their experiences directly to the agency, the government is unlikely to recognize the issue as one requiring action. Kurishita said he is considering sharing information and templates to help creators submit inquiries, and called on others concerned about the issue to help raise awareness.
According to Kurishita, the meeting also established that the FSA and the government consider it inappropriate for financial institutions to reject transactions categorically on the grounds that a customer sells adult content. While banks are generally responsible for determining whether to process transactions, Kurishita said the FSA stressed that such decisions should be based on detailed risk assessments rather than blanket restrictions on particular types of content. However, as mentioned earlier, some financial institutions do not disclose the specific reasons behind their decisions, making it difficult for affected creators to determine whether a bank has rejected a transaction solely because of its association with adult games.
Kurishita said agency officials listened carefully to the voices of affected developers during the meeting, but stressed that the problem is still not being recognized as a serious threat to Japanese creators. He intends to continue raising awareness about the issue, arguing that debanking could pose a significant obstacle to creators seeking to sell Japanese content overseas.
Meanwhile, Mistilteinn has announced that it will compile a list of practical steps affected creators can take in response to debanking, following advice received from the FSA. The article will be shared via their official channels (link is NSFW).
Amber V
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