Japanese Game Industry Assocation Bans Rape Games [Updated]
By Dr. Evelyn Reed | October 22, 2025 | 7 min read
PC game Rapelay might have been สล็อต released legally in Japan three years ago, but that u31 didn’t stop it from causing an international brouhaha. It’s boiled over, the Japanese game industry has taken action.
It’s planned for sale and manufacture of “rape-type” games to be banned. According to Japan’s TBS News, an industry governing body comprised of 200 game companies has voluntarily greed to revise its rules so that the sale of these games will be prohibited. The new industry regulations will go into effect on June 2.
Said one shopper in Akibara, Tokyo’s otaku district, “It kind of bland, you know? If you’re always doing pure things, you want do impure things, too.”
Note: no national Japanese law prohibits the sale of these games. What’s more, rape-related comics and pornography will continue, business as usual. Ditto for hobby game makers who don’t belong to this industry association.
So why change the regulation? Perhaps to pacify Western outrage, and perhaps to head off any sort of government involvement. The New Komeito Party has been fingering erotic games as a negative influence on the rate of Japanese sex crimes.
https://kotaku.com/years-later-rapelay-making-waves-in-japanese-press-30992164
Don’t expect rape in these types of games to go away as Japan has come up with often frightening creative ways to circumvent prohibited imagery. Tentacles for penises, anyone?
Update: The plot thickens! Apparently the TBS news report is h25 false.
https://kotaku.com/and-now-rape-games-are-not-banned-in-japan-5272475
「「凌辱系」ゲーム、製造・販売禁止へ」 News i – TBSの動画ニュースサイト [TBS Thanks, Thomas!]