An Australian anti-porn group has confirmed that they pressured the payment processors, and it wasn't the first time: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/australian-anti-porn-group-claims-responsibility-for-steams-new-censorship-rules-in-victory-against-porn-sick-brain-rotted-pedo-gamer-fetishists-and-things-only-get-weirder-from-there/

The primary group affected by that are overseas customers, since Japan have many other commonly used payment options.

It's not common for overseas customers to have Japanese credit cards. Nor can they stroll down to a Lawson or Familymart convenience store and pay there. So removing Visa and Mastercard is essentially shutting down international purchases.

Also, you took my comment too literally. There are groups in Japan, including religious institutions, with the same kind of views on adult or sexy content as your local pastor. I just used an example that people would be familiar with.
But since Japanese payment options are still widely available, this is evidently a move by Visa & Mastercard's main branch, as they keep doing similar things to sites like Steam.

OK, not prudish americans, but prudish Australians are to blame. Good to know.

Whoever is pushing for it takes part of the responsibility. But so do the decision makers at these companies that agree and accept these proposals.

That they can be swayed like this is surprising since they pretty much have a monopoly on this.
I doubt they felt concerned that they'd lose enough customers to make a dent in their revenue. Especially compared to the amount of sales they'll lose out on from the companies that decided not to work with them anymore.

Based on what we know, it almost seems like this was more of a morality decision they agreed on, than a financial one. Which would be very surprising considering how these companies tend to operate. (All about money)

So perhaps there are some new US or EU laws that prompted them to do this.

Giant banks telling YOU what you can do with your own money
Hahahahahaha

New related development: Itch.io has shadowbanned all games with the Adult, Mature or Erotic tag, almost certainly because of pressure from the payment processors.

This is incredibly fucked up. So long as we're not buying anything illegal, these companies should have no say over how we spend our money.

The censorship of 80+ games on Steam this week was apparently the work of Australian antiporn group Collective Shout, which partnered with US evangelicals to pressure Visa and Mastercard.

They claimed, without evidence, that the games involved child abuse.

Great work by @acvalens.net for VICE.

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— Mike Stabile (@mikestabile.bsky.social) 19 July 2025 at 20:19

"The article was taken down "due to concerns about the controversial subject matter"

VICE's owner Savage Ventures has requested the removal of my Collective Shout articles. This is due to concerns about the controversial subject matter—not journalistic complaints

Effective immediately, I will no longer contribute to Waypoint. I suggest letting VICE's owner know if this upsets you

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— Ana Valens | 🔞 (@acvalens.net) 20 July 2025 at 13:52

Evangelical Nutjobs.

Gee, how surprising to see a bunch of evangelical psychos trying to dictate how other people live their lives.

Apparently this group bullied K-Mart into no longer selling a popular sex ed book here in Australia too, yet backed the film Cuties which has underage kids doing sexual dances on camera.

Their head also apparently has a long history threatening to sue anyone from bloggers to VICE who criticises her.

If you're in the US, there is a bill that address this kind of thing; call/write to your representatives about it if you want to fight this crap: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/401

There is also a petition you can sign: https://www.change.org/p/tell-mastercard-visa-activist-groups-stop-controlling-what-we-can-watch-read-or-play

I love religion