On October 21, 2026, Tokyo-based viviON, operator of the Japanese digital-content marketplace DLsite, announced that "Minna no Ginko Payment" had passed ¥100 million in monthly transaction volume on DLsite. The service is a direct bank-account checkout built with Fukuoka Financial Group's digital-only Minna no Ginko (Minna Bank). viviON's release says the threshold was crossed in August 2026. Automaton West, which covered the milestone on October 28, puts it at roughly $630,000 a month. viviON says the service, which launched October 6, 2025, passed 10,000 users in about three weeks.

Why It Matters

This is one of the few working, measurable examples of an adult-content marketplace rebuilding its checkout around the card networks rather than complying its way back onto them. The model has limits. It depends on a domestic digital bank and is **Japan-only**, so it doesn't help DLsite's international customers. viviON hasn't said what share of DLsite's total sales the bank rail now carries. Still, it shows that account-to-account rails with a sympathetic bank partner can carry real volume, which is the same thesis behind open-banking checkouts in Europe and crypto outreach such as [Zcash's adult-industry grant](/stories/zcash-adult-industry-outreach-grant). Card-network pressure on Japanese platforms ([pixivFANBOX](/stories/pixiv-fanbox-payment-processor-suspensions)) and globally ([Mastercard's SMMP](/stories/mastercard-smmp-adult-merchants)) isn't easing. Adult creators, toy retailers and platforms should treat bank-partner rails as a contingency worth building before a processor notice arrives.

Why DLsite needed it. DLsite publicly suspended Visa, Mastercard and American Express payments in 2024 over adult content on the platform, and Automaton notes that Japan's domestic JCB is still the only card brand it accepts. Before the suspension, DLsite had tried to reclassify or rename tags tied to problematic adult tropes, but the effort didn't restore card access. Minna no Ginko Payment avoids card intermediaries completely. Users link a viviON ID to a Minna Bank account and pay straight from it, earning the standard 2% in viviON points. viviON also launched its own viviON JCB card in January 2026.

Pushing adoption with cash. To mark the first anniversary, Minna Bank is running a promotion from October 21 to November 30, 2026. DLsite shoppers who spend ¥5,000 or more via the bank checkout enter a lottery for cash prizes up to ¥100,000 (1,700 winners in total), and first-time users get 10% back in cash, capped at ¥1,000. viviON notes that the bank, not viviON, is running the campaign.

Sources

Update — 2026-10-29

Initial entry — story first created.

Update — 2026-10-30

Japan's regulator weighs in on debanking. A day after the DLsite numbers came out, Japanese free-speech activist and former assemblyman Zenko Kurishita reported that he had brought adult-game creators to meet Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) about banks blocking their overseas revenue (AUTOMATON, Oct 29). According to Kurishita, the FSA said that selling adult games alone is not a sufficient reason to deny banking services, and that banks should base transaction decisions on detailed risk assessments rather than blanket bans on content types. The FSA also said it had received only one consultation on the issue in the past year, does not consider debanking widespread, and might act only after "a sufficiently large number of complaints," without saying how many. Kurishita says he knows of at least ten affected creators in his own network. Studio Mistilteinn, which at one point couldn't access its overseas revenue for more than a year and a half, plans to publish steps creators can take based on FSA advice.

What changed: DLsite's bank-direct rail works around the card networks for domestic consumer payments. Creators also face a second problem: Japanese banks refusing inbound international payouts from platforms like Steam. The FSA's position gives creators a basis for complaints, but no enforcement yet. Regulators act on volume, so formal complaints filed now are what could change policy.

New Sources