JAV Museum

Where to buy JAV online, or why JAV fans love American Express (updated)

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In this post (which I intend to continually update), I list various websites where you can buy JAV, and my thoughts on each of them.

I'm only listing websites I've personally used, but you can find a longer list of legal JAV sites on this useful post on Reddit.

Updates

ZENRA

ZENRA offers JAV with English subtitles through a monthly subscription. Unlike most of the other websites on this list, they do not use any form of DRM at all, which I much appreciate.

However, although ZENRA has some brilliant videos, their selection is somewhat limited. Downloads of videos marked as Exclusive (which is most of them) is restricted to VIP subscribers, and there is a daily download limit of 10GB (which includes streaming).

On the whole, though, this is a great website for overseas JAV fans that actually respects their users by not locking down their videos with DRM.

Verdict: Recommended

FS.KnightsVisual

Knights Visual is an independent JAV studio noted for their creampie, bukkake and gokkun videos.

They sell their videos (as well as videos from partner studios) through their website (which is only available in Japanese), and they are all DRM-free. The one thing you need to be aware of, though, is that your purchases are only downloadable for a limited amount of time. Therefore, it's important that you download and save the videos, otherwise you will lose access to them after a few weeks.

Annoyingly for overseas customers, they do not accept Visa or Mastercard. However, I had no problems using an American Express card.

Verdict: Recommended

Cospuri

Cospuri is an English language JAV website specialising in cosplay porn. What's more, the videos are uncensored.

Since this is a website for one particular studio, the selection of videos is limited (as of April 2023, the amount of content on offer is roughly equivalent to around 55 full-length JAV videos). On the plus side, the videos are DRM-free.

Verdict: Recommended

Dogma

Dogma is a JAV studio specialising in fetish content. They sell videos DRM-free through their website, though be aware that the video quality of some of their older videos (and if you're on a monthly subscription) aren't quite up to scratch.

Verdict: Recommended

CuteStream

CuteStream sells image videos from studios DIGIPLAN, Fine Pictures, Gravision and Evolution. The video content is superb and in crisp 1080p. ~~Unfortunately, as of June 2024, they no longer accept Mastercard or Visa cards. Unless you have a JCB card or are able to use Payafter, G-MONEY or SecurityMoney, your best bet is to buy a BitCash voucher from Playasia and redeem it on the site.~~ As of August 2024, Visa and Mastercard payments have been restored (Mastercard certainly worked for me with the Trans Credit option). One minor point I would note is that although CuteStream has a lot of exclusive content, it's worth shopping around. Sometimes you can find better versions of the videos from FC2, but more commonly the reverse is true.

Verdict: Recommended

Kingdom

Kingdom sells image videos and the occasional AV. Videos are DRM-free, and I was able to pay using my foreign Mastercard. You'll need to provide a fake address and enter your name twice (you can use Latin characters in the first box and then transliterate into katakana for the second box). When asked to select a prefecture, select 海外 (overseas).

Verdict: Recommended

Bagus TV

Bagus TV sells non-nude gravure videos. Their website is rather clunky, and you have to buy points before redeeming them for videos (and they only sell points in certain denominations). They also offer a monthly subscription. Fortunately, their videos are DRM-free, and they accept foreign Mastercards.

Verdict: Recommended

TOKYO247.jp

TOKYO247.jp is a JAV streaming site with 960 videos available for sale at time of writing. The site is entirely in Japanese, and sells videos using a points system. After registering for an account, you can charge your account using set amounts, from 1,050 points for ¥1,000 to 11,000 points for ¥10,000 (as you can see, you get a discount if you buy a greater number of points up front).

If you want a greater discount, you can take up a monthly subscription. Really, this just lets you automatically charge your account each month at a discounted rate. There's a 2,200 points for ¥2,000 per month option, or a 6,000 points for ¥5,000 per month option.

Video lengths vary greatly, and are reflected to some extent in the prices. A one-hour video might sell for 1,000 points, whereas a two-minute video might sell for 200 points.

The website doesn't make the video quality options clear before you make a purchase. I bought four videos and they were all available in 1080p, but the product page only had a trailer in 360p. The bitrate of the videos I purchased had bitrates of around 4 Mbps, which is noticeably on the low side.

The videos are streaming-only. However, the streams are DRM-free and use HTTP Live Streaming. If you know what you're doing, it's possible to create a permanent local copy of the videos.

Verdict: Recommended

Paradise TV

Paradise TV is a JAV TV channel. You can purchase programmes on demand through their website DRM-free. However, be aware that download speeds are extremely slow. They also offer a live stream of their TV channel, but it's basically unwatchable due to how laggy it is.

Verdict: Recommended only if you can put up with the slow speeds

MistressLand (337799)

MistressLand is another JAV studio specialising in fetish content. They offer a monthly subscription which gives you access to some of their content. Much of their content is locked away behind further monthly subscriptions. There's great content, but the price can be quite dear. On the plus side, some videos have English subtitles. On the other hand, there's a restriction to how much you can download each day. Their website can also be a bit janky at times.

If a monthly subscription isn't to your taste, you can also purchase videos individually through their online shop, but each video is quite expensive there too.

Verdict: Recommended, if you can afford it

FANZA Douga

FANZA (formerly known as DMM.R18) is a Japanese language JAV marketplace. This is the OG JAV website that the ill-fated R18.com was spun-out from. It probably has the vastest collection of JAV on offer out of any of the websites listed on this page.

Unfortunately, their video downloads are restricted using DRM. Their one saving grace is that their video streams do not require any form of Encrypted Media Extension.

Parts of their website are restricted to Japanese IP addresses. If you are connecting from abroad, you may be required to pay using DMM Points (which you can top up through the website). However, if connecting from a Japanese IP address, you can pay by credit card. Unfortunately Mastercard is not accepted, but American Express works fine.

Verdict: Recommended for the DRM-free streams only

XCITY

XCITY is a monthly subscription service that gives you access to tens of thousands of videos from dozens of studios. It offers an English language website for overseas customers. Downloading videos requires installing their proprietary software, but they also offer DRM-free streams (albeit encrypted with AES). The main downside is the picture quality – the maximum quality is 720p at 3000kbps. Aside from that, though, it's a pretty good way to access a wide range of videos. Although I wasn't able to pay for it with a Mastercard, they do accept American Express.

Verdict: Recommended if you don't mind the low picture quality

XCREAM

XCREAM is a digital marketplace for general and adult works. Despite the fact that their website is available in English, I wasn't able to pay with either my Mastercard nor my American Express card.

Verdict: Might be worth trying to see if your card is accepted.

DUGA

DUGA is a JAV marketplace similar to FANZA that allows purchases and rentals of a broad range of videos. One thing that appealed to me was that some (but not all) of the videos are DRM-free (look out for the text "DRMなし" on the product page). However, when I tried purchasing such a video myself (in April 2023), I was disappointed to find that it asked me for a phone number. It only seems to accept Japanese phone numbers, and I have found no way to bypass this restriction.

Some people have reported being able to purchase videos if they sign into DUGA using their Rakuten account. This way, you make your purchase via Rakuten Pay. I tried this, but the payment wouldn't go through whether I used my American Express card or a couple of different Mastercards.

Verdict: May be worth a try if you have a Japanese phone number or you're able to pay via Rakuten Pay

369.vc

369.vc sells gravure videos. However, their website seems to have very strict security measures that make it difficult to access, even when connected via VPN. Furthermore, when I've been fortunate enough to actually get onto the site, they won't accept my Mastercard or American Express card.

As of 2024-02-29, Mastercard have suspended payments to this site (even within Japan).

Verdict: Unlikely to work, but maybe you'll have better luck than me.

AdultFestaTV

AfestaTV is another JAV digital storefront. Unfortunately, their help pages indicate that you need to use their proprietary video player to watch videos, even just to stream them.

I am informed, however, that their service for VR videos – AdultFestaVR – offers DRM-free videos, but this is not something I've verified myself.

Verdict: Not recommended, unless you're buying VR videos

Sokmil

Sokmil used to be my favourite JAV site since they have a vast collection and their streams used to be DRM-free. That changed in late 2021 or early 2022. Now they use Encrypted Media Extensions. What a shame.

Verdict: No longer recommended

H-NEXT

H-NEXT is the adult counterpart of streaming service U-NEXT. Unfortunately, they use Encrypted Media Extensions. Nuff said.

Verdict: Not recommended

MGStage Douga

MGStage is a JAV marketplace from the Prestige group. Unfortunately, we've received reports that they use Encrypted Media Extensions as DRM.

Verdict: Not recommended

SODprime

SODprime is Soft on Demand's JAV marketplace. Unfortunately, according to their help page, you need to install their proprietary video player to watch videos (even just to stream them).

Verdict: Not recommended

HELLO ERO powered by H2U

HELLO ERO is a service that allows users to watch videos from Soft on Demand by redeeming codes purchased from Amazon. I have not used the site myself, but their playback test page requires the use of Encrypted Media Extensions, therefore I expect the videos purchased also use this form of DRM.

Verdict: Not recommended