Visa Japan’s CEO says disabling card payment for legal adult content is “necessary to protect the brand”
Since last year, international credit card companies and payment processors have been seemingly targeting major Japanese content platforms, sending requests for adult content on them to be removed or censored, and one-sidedly terminating payment options. Recent cases include the doujinshi manga chain Melonbooks, which cannot receive payment via Visa or Mastercard anymore, and the out-of-print manga archive Manga Library Z, which had to shut down entirely after losing practically all methods of receiving payment from its users.
The issue has been garnering a lot of criticism both in Japan and globally, especially due to the fact that platforms for self-published works and fanart seem to be the biggest targets. Even figures like NieR: Automata creator Yoko Taro have spoken out on the issue, calling the pressure international payment processors exert on Japanese content platforms “dangerous” for how it jeopardizes free expression.
But what do the credit card companies in question have to say about the matter? Recently, Visa’s Japanese subsidiary, Visa Worldwide Japan Co., held a briefing to talk about its local expansion strategies (as reported by Impress Watch). During the Q&A session of this briefing, the company’s president and representative director Cietan Kitney was asked about why Visa is becoming unusable on sites selling adult content that’s legal in Japan.
In response, Kitney commented that while Visa’s policy is to make legal and legitimate purchases available as much as possible, it is “sometimes necessary to deny use to protect the brand.” He goes on to say that these are “complex decisions involving both global and local policies” and that “it is important to maintain sincerity and integrity, and we will continue to do so,” which suggests that the company does not intent to change its stance. There is no specific explanation provided as to what kind of global and local policies Visa’s decisions are being determined by.
