Eroge Site Blocks Non-Japanese Viewers

As the Japanese erotic game industry continues to deal with fallout from the RapeLay controversy, developer Minori has blocked access to its website by viewers outside Japan and a list of words now banned in games has also come to the surface.

Since the accidental appearance of RapeLay on Amazon, much of the Western world has been up in arms over the Japanese eroge industry, which develops and publishes a wide range of erotic games that are common in Japan but largely unknown to other cultures. As a result of the outcry, Japanese game publishers have been codifying new standards for such games, although much of it appears to affect the presentation of the games rather than the actual content, and it’s difficult to shake the feeling that most of it is being done for the benefit of outsiders.

In that vein, eroge developer Minori is no longer allowing its website to be viewed by people who reside outside of Japan. Anyone attempting to access the site now receives the following message:

This website cannot be browsed excluding Japan.
Some foreigners seem to be having an antipathy against EROGE.
Therefore, We prohibited the access from foreign countries, to defend our culture.
Sorry for you of the fan that lives in a foreign country.

At least one Japanese online retailer also said it will begin restricting games that have any association with a list of keywords mandated by an “unnamed regulation body,” which Canned Dogs says is most likely the Ethics Organization of Computer Software. Among the list of proscribed words and phrases is “rape,” “cruel sexual play,” “train groping,” “incest,” “torture” and “reverse sexual violence,” as well as any alternate terms that reference them in any way. The list covers written materials used anywhere in the games as well as imagery.

Regulators in Japan apparently still haven’t settled on exactly when the new restrictions will take effect or what they will entail but an announcement finalizing the changes is expected shortly. Meanwhile, to help avoid controversies like that surrounding RapeLay from erupting again in the future, some manufacturers are voluntarily toning down the titles of their games; thus, Slave Maiden’s Rape Hell becomes Young Girl’s Prison and Repayment Sex Slavery is now known as Repayment Plan.