In a devastating blow to both artistic freedom and artistic preservation, the aptly-named online manga archive Manga Library Z has sadly announced that due to credit card companies refusing to provide them with online payment processing services due to their hosting of “adult content”, they have been left with no other choice but to shutter their doors completely.
Founded by Love Hina mangaka Ken Akamatsu in 2011 under the original name of J-Comi, said manga archive serves (or rather, served) as a repository for both out-of-print manga and self-published doujinishi books, which it would host and monetize only after seeking permission from a given work’s original creators.
Series that found a home on Manga Library Z include Yuji Aoki’s Naniwa Kin’yūdō (Eng. The Way of the Osaka Loan Shark), Mai Tsurugina and Tadashi Katou’s The Chef, and Akamatsu’s aforementioned Love Hina.
But, as noted above, it was not the site’s hosting of old manga that drew the ire of credit card companies, but rather their hosting of an extensive collection of adult erotica, as spread across their manga and doujinishi libraries.
To this end, the trouble for Manga Library Z began in October, when at the beginning of the month, the site’s administration reported via an official statement published to their website that “the payment agency with which we have a merchant agreement notified us that the agreement will be terminated at the end of October due to ‘handling of adult content’.”
“After repeated discussions, we were unable to overturn the notice and, although it was a difficult decision, we have decided to accept the termination,” they continued, as machine translated by DeepL. “In accordance with this decision, we will stop processing premium membership registrations at the end of October.”
“Also, credit card and docomo payment will no longer be available for processing PDF purchases from November,” the admins added. “Only BitCash payments will be accepted for PDF purchases. We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this sudden notice. We are internally reviewing the measures to be taken in the future. We appreciate your understanding.”
Unfortunately for the site and its users, a little less than month later, its administration would reveal that they “had decided to shut down the Manga Library Z site due to the difficulty in returning profits to authors and operating the site in the future.”
“Although Manga Library Z has made a group of rare works, mainly manga that have already gone out of print and have not yet been digitized, available again for free, and has been returning advertising revenue to their authors for more than a decade, in recent years, we have had increasing difficulty dealing with payment services (such as credit card companies),” they explained of their decision.
“Fourteen years ago, when manga artist Ken Akamatsu launched the predecessor service ‘J Comi,’ e-books were not yet very common, and there were only a few services where manga could be read on the Internet,” they recalled. “In this context, ‘J Comi’ was the pioneer of an e-book service that allowed anyone to read manga for free.”
“For almost 14 years since then, even though the name of the service has changed, the staff of Manga Library Z is grateful to all the authors and users for their long-time patronage,” their lamentations continued. “At the same time, we also feel responsible for continuing to operate the site with the thoughts and feelings of so many people on our shoulders. We can only regret that we have had to shut down the site.”
Going into further detail regarding their battle with their payment processors, the Manga Library Z staff asserted, “we were notified by the settlement agent last month that we have no choice but to terminate all settlement service contracts at the end of October. We discussed this matter with the settlement agent as soon as possible, but the decision was made by the credit card company, and we were already in a situation where we could not reverse the decision.”
“We made a series of urgent financial calculations and discussions, and discussed the future operation of the site until the very last minute, but we decided to suspend the site because we felt that continuing to operate the site in such a way that we would not be able to return profits to authors would ultimately betray the trust of both authors and users,” they said. “We apologize for this decision.”
However, despite their cessation of their manga-hosting services, Manga Library Z’s team closed out their announcement by assuring readers that “J Comic Terrace Inc., which operates Manga Library Z, is also involved in the ‘wholesale business’ of providing works to the stores of other companies, and we will continue to focus on the wholesale business in the future in order to return profits to participating authors.”
Further, they also declared that they would “continue to work with all parties concerned to find a way to restart the site.”
“Although it is still only a narrow path, we will consider the possibility of becoming a non-profit organization, crowdfunding, and so on,” the administration concluded. “We hope that the day will come when we will be able to deliver our manga to you again.”
Offering his own statement on the site’s closure via his personal Twitter account, Akamatsu likewise detailed, “The direct cause of the site shutdown this time was that the payment agency notified us that it was terminating the entire payment service, including payment methods other than credit card payment.”
“All credit card companies, including JCB, suddenly became unusable, and all other payment methods (except BitCash) also became unavailable,” he said. “In addition, even the payment for the month that had already passed was withheld, and since the premium membership fee for that period (and future ones) was no longer coming in at all, we found ourselves in a situation where we could not even pay for the server. The Manga Library Z management staff discussed the situation, and came to the conclusion that ‘it is impossible to operate the site solely on BitCash earnings,’ ‘even if we find an alternative payment agency, the same phenomenon may occur again,’ and ‘we do not want to survive by deleting only some of the works.”
“We decided to shut down the site,” the mangaka continued. “We deeply apologize that the period between the notification and the withholding of payment was so short that we had to ‘bow down to the company that provides the payment service.’ However, this time, we were able to obtain accurate information (only the parties concerned can provide) such as ‘On what basis the company declared the suspension of payment services’, ‘How much penalty will be imposed and how long it will last’, [and] ‘What specific measures were taken to avoid the suspension; etc.’ We believe that we will be able to conduct a more legitimate investigation and conduct a hearing.”
Winding down his statement with a look at the ‘bigger picture’, Akamatsu recalled, “In the past, Love Hina was banned by Apple’s e-book application and later restored. We still cite that experience frequently as a ‘concrete experience example’ for ‘protecting freedom of expression’ and use it effectively to this day.”
“In recent years, unprecedented ‘strong conditions’ and ‘strong penalties’ have been issued by payment services, and if these are left unchecked, the situation will surely become a problem not only for e-books but for the Japanese content industry as a whole,” he ultimately affirmed. “As ‘the party that was actually forced to close the site,’ we are determined to take more precise countermeasures. We would be grateful for your support.”
