The credit card restrictions are still coming strong, and the latest Japanese content-sharing site to follow FANZA, Fantia, Niconico, Getchu, DLsite and others in imposing restrictions on how overseas users can purchase content is streaming service U-Next.

If you haven't heard of it, U-Next has been around since 2007 and isn't an art-sharing or explicitly lewd-oriented website like some of the aforementioned sites. It's a streaming service that features live-action movies and shows, anime, PPV sports and more, including western series supplied by HBO. There's also a XXX section marked "Other" that contains softcore stuff, erotic dramas, gravure and ASMR vids, but no full-on porn. The Japanese equivalent of Skinemax, pretty much.

It must have some users from outside Japan, considering they take payments from major western credit card companies. That was until a recent update that declared the streaming service will no longer be accepting Visa and Mastercard, but only for certain types of videos. It said:

"Thank you very much for using U-NEXT.

This is an important notice for customers who have registered a Visa/Mastercard brand credit card as a payment method.

Due to various circumstances, U-NEXT has temporarily suspended the distribution of "Other ♡" genre works to customers who have registered Visa/Master brand credit cards.

You can continue to enjoy works in the target genre by changing to a credit card other than the Visa/Mastercard brand, such as the JCB card below, or other payment methods."

Because Visa and Mastercard users can still view any other than the "Other" section, it's obvious what motivated this update, and it seemingly confirms our suspicions about the other sites, too. Something is definitely up at these credit card companies, and we don't even know how far they'll go to stop people from accessing things they enjoy. 

What do you guys think? Have you used U-Next before? Let us know below!