Melonbooks Dōjinshi Store Chain to Halt Visa/Mastercard Payments on December 19

Chain will still accept payments via JCB/American Express cards or other means

Melonbooks added that its physical store branches are working to resume Visa and Mastercard payments sometime after mid-December. Additionally, the chain plans to introduce a new in-store payment service called Melob Tenpo Kessai (Melob Store Payment). The service would allow customers to submit payments at a physical Melonbooks store for orders made on its online shopping service. Manga Toshokan Z (Manga Library Z), a digital service for publishing rare out-of-print manga for free, announced on November 5 that it is shutting down on November 26, due to issues with credit card companies and a termination of all payment services. Manga creator Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima!) founded the service originally known as J-Comi's "Zeppan Manga Toshokan" in 2011 and launched a beta test of the site in 2010. The advertising revenue-based service distributes hard-to-find manga and publishes it for free, returning the revenue to the original creators. Update: Another dōjinshi store chain, Toranoana, stopped accepting payments via Visa and Mastercard for its online service on August 13. Sources: Melonbooks' website and X/Twitter account via Hachima Kikō