Japanese game dev denied by bank with ties to western payment processors

A Japanese game dev has been denied service by a domestic bank via refusal to process a money transfer from the English publisher of the game.

Mousou no Mayu, the developer of Hustle Battle: Card Gamers told followers that a payout from publisher Kagura Games was denied by their bank due to the content of the game. This is despite the fact that the version of the game uploaded to Steam is an all-ages version and doesn’t include any ecchi content.

本日、改めて銀行へ確認を行ってまいりました。⁰その結果、やはりSteam版の売上については受け入れ不可との回答を受けました。⁰また、国内向けの売上（DLsite、FANZA等）についても、今後の判断次第では入金をお断りする可能性があるとのことです。
嘘でしょ……
↓ https://t.co/7JhM5WzWe6

— 妄想の繭 (@tell_cocoon) May 13, 2026

According to Automaton, the bank in question is the Daishi Hokuetsu Bank. One of the bank’s largest foreign investors is Blackrock, an investment firm headquartered in New York City. Blackrock is also a major shareholder in both Visa and Mastercard with enough ownership to speculatively influence corporate culture.

Over the past several years, western payment processors have been increasingly putting pressure on online artists and other content creators and applying arbitrary standards around adult content. As a result, multiple sites have had to redesign their content policies to placate them, including Patreon, Pixiv, Itchi.io, and even Steam.

The threat posed by payment processors on the creative freedom of artists has drawn the notice of members of the Japanese government.

Luckily, Mousou no Mayu has managed to move to a netbank which thus far respects their freedom of expression.