According to several sources,  the seven American branches of Kinokuniya have confirmed with Inside AX that they have stopped carrying bishoujo magazines as of this month due to “inappropriate content.” The five magazines? Gakken’s Megami Magazine and Megami Magazine Deluxe, Kadokawa Shoten’s Nyantype and ASCII Media Work’s Degenki Moeoh and Dengeki Hime. In addition, they have canceled the subscriptions of active subscribers, providing them with this following letter:

July 7th, 2010

(subscriber name/address removed)

Dear Subscriber,

Thank you very much for using the Kinokuniya magazine subscription services.

We are writing this letter to inform you that we no longer handle subscriptions to Megami magazine since it has recently come to our attention that the magazine may contain inappropriate contents which may not comply with applicable local, state, and/or federal regulations.

It is our policy to take a cautious approach in conducting our business in full compliance with any applicable local, state, and/or federal regulations. In keeping with this policy, we will cancel your subscription to this publication.

Please accept the enclosed refund check for the portion of the subscription remaining.

Thanks again for your continuous patronage to our business.

Should you have any questions or concern regarding this matter, please contact me below.

Sincerely,

(name removed)
Kinokuniya Bookstores of America Co., LTD.

As a buyer of these magazines, I have to say is….where exactly is the problem? There’s nothing that’s inappropriate in them and I can attribute all of this to the ever-increasing growing problem of social paranoia made by a few circles. According to a telephone representative, some of the magazines may be mistaken as having inappropriate content or sexual content, although based on my experience with them; they contain nothing of the sort. They can be purchased by anyone under 18 in Japan and are not classified as a “harmful publication.” Which to the uninitiated is our American equivalent of a mature-magazine. What’s next? Barnes and Noble banning Manga due to “inappropriate content”? I fear where this may be headed…

[source: Sankaku Complex]

Tags: Kinokuniya, merchandise