Rakuten Pay

Rakuten Pay Censorship: Blocking in China and North Korea

What Rakuten Pay Is

Rakuten Pay is a digital wallet and payment service operated by Rakuten Group, a major Japanese e-commerce and fintech conglomerate founded in 1997. The payment service launched in 2016 as part of Rakuten's broader expansion into financial technology. Rakuten Pay enables users to make contactless payments at retail terminals and online merchants across Japan and select international markets. The service integrates with Rakuten's ecosystem of shopping platforms, banking services, and loyalty programs. As of 2023, Rakuten Pay had several million active users, primarily concentrated in Japan, though international adoption remains limited compared to competitors.

Why It's Censored

Chinese regulators restrict access to Rakuten Pay through the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and the People's Bank of China's payment supervision framework. Foreign payment systems in mainland China face restrictions under regulations requiring domestic control over financial data and transaction processing. The 2015 Anti-Money Laundering Law and subsequent fintech guidelines mandate that cross-border payment services operate through licensed domestic intermediaries. Rakuten Pay's inability or unwillingness to establish a compliant domestic subsidiary blocks direct market entry.

North Korea maintains comprehensive financial isolation under UN sanctions and domestic currency control laws. The regime's isolation of its won currency and restriction of foreign financial instruments extends to all international payment services, including Rakuten Pay. North Korea's telecommunications infrastructure itself remains largely closed to civilian internet access, making the practical availability of most foreign fintech services moot.

Technical Blocking Methods

In China, blocking occurs through multiple mechanisms. DNS filtering by state-controlled ISPs prevents resolution of Rakuten Pay domain names to functional IP addresses. Deep packet inspection (DPI) identifies and throttles traffic patterns associated with payment processing and foreign financial services. IP-level blocking targets known Rakuten service infrastructure. Keyword filtering in the Great Firewall blocks searches and references to the service across Chinese platforms.

North Korea's blocking is less granular but more absolute. Its limited internet gateway—primarily the China-based Star JV network—implements basic IP blocking of foreign financial services at the national level. Most North Korean citizens lack internet access entirely; blocking is enforced at the infrastructure layer rather than through sophisticated packet analysis.

User Workarounds

Users in censored regions typically employ virtual private networks (VPNs) that encrypt and reroute traffic through servers in unrestricted jurisdictions. This masks the destination of traffic from DPI systems and bypasses IP-level blocking. However, VPN use in China faces legal ambiguity and operational pressure, with access to many VPN services becoming unstable since 2017.

Some users employ proxy services or Tor browser to circumvent DNS filtering. A smaller segment uses Tor exit nodes in unrestricted countries, though this introduces latency unsuitable for real-time payment processing.

Alternatives

Alipay and WeChat Pay dominate mobile payments in China, both operating under regulatory compliance frameworks approved by the People's Bank of China. Neither service is blocked domestically, though both face restrictions when accessed from outside China for cross-border transactions.

PayPal remains accessible in portions of China through partnerships with Baidu, though direct PayPal services face similar restrictions to Rakuten Pay. In North Korea, no legitimate payment alternatives exist for civilian use.

Outlook

Chinese restrictions on foreign payment services show no sign of easing. The 2023 fintech guidelines reinforced domestic preference and data localization requirements. The government's consolidation of fintech oversight under the CAC suggests continued tightening.

North Korea's isolation is structural rather than reactive, making changes contingent on broader geopolitical shifts unlikely in the near term. Rakuten Pay expansion into these markets remains low priority for the company given regulatory barriers and limited addressable markets. The blocking trend is toward entrenchment rather than liberalization.