Privacy policy

Who is responsible for your data

The data controller for livinginjapanguide.com is The Living in Japan Guide editorial team, reachable at contact@livinginjapanguide.com. Because the publisher is established in the European Union, this site applies the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to every visitor, wherever you are reading from.

What we collect, and why

• Contact and enquiry forms. When you write to us we collect your first name, your email address, an optional phone or WhatsApp number, the subject you select and your message. We use them to answer you. Legal basis: your consent, given by sending the form.
• Newsletter. If you subscribe, we keep your email address to send you the newsletter. Every email carries an unsubscribe link. Legal basis: your consent.
• Audience measurement. We measure how the site is used (pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser) to work out which guides are useful and which need rewriting. The tools and the consent they require are listed under Cookies below.
• Affiliate tracking. When you follow a booking link, the partner may set its own cookie to attribute the booking to us. We record the page the click came from. We never receive your payment details or the contents of your booking. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in funding a free guide.
• Technical logs. Our hosting provider keeps short-lived server logs, including IP addresses, for security and to keep the site running. Legal basis: legitimate interest.

There is no user account on this site. We do not sell personal data, and we do not run an advertising network on this site.

Who receives your data

• The Living in Japan Guide team, to deal with your enquiry.
• Our enquiry tool: messages sent through the forms on this site are stored there, with the page they came from and the subject selected.
• Independent professionals (for example an immigration adviser, a lawyer, an estate agent or an insurance broker): only if you ask to be put in touch, and only with the details needed for your request.
• Kit (processor): newsletter delivery, if you subscribe.

Cookies

livinginjapanguide.com may use the following cookies and similar technologies:

• Google Analytics: audience measurement cookies (pages viewed, session length, approximate location), set only after you accept them in the cookie banner. Google Consent Mode keeps them blocked until then.
• Microsoft Clarity: audience measurement and anonymised analysis of how pages are used (clicks, scrolling), to make them easier to read. Form fields are masked.
• Visit source cookie: a technical cookie remembers the page you arrived on and where your visit came from, so that we know which pages were useful when you write to us or follow a link to a partner.
• Consent choice: your answer to the cookie banner is stored in your browser. Clearing the data stored for this site in your browser brings the banner back.

No advertising cookie is set by this site. Declining the banner leaves the site fully usable. You can also set your browser to refuse cookies or to warn you when one is set.

Affiliate links and third-party sites

Some links on this site are affiliate links to outside platforms such as activity, accommodation, car hire, insurance and eSIM providers. Those platforms may set their own cookies once you follow the link and land on their site. Tracking those clicks is how a platform attributes a commission to us when you book or buy, at no extra cost to you.

Those sites have their own privacy policies and we are not responsible for how they collect data. Read their policies if you want the detail.

Hosting and transfers outside the EU

The site is hosted by Contabo GmbH (Aschauer Straße 32a, 81549 Munich, Germany). Our audience measurement providers also process data in the United States.

These transfers rely on the standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission under Article 46 of the GDPR and, where the provider is certified, on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

How long we keep it

Messages you send us are kept for as long as needed to answer them, and for up to three years after our last contact with you. After that they are deleted or anonymised. Your newsletter subscription is kept until you unsubscribe.

Your rights

Under the GDPR, and under the UK GDPR if you live in the United Kingdom, you have the following rights over your personal data:

• Access: confirmation that data about you is being processed, and a copy of it.
• Rectification: correction of anything inaccurate or incomplete.
• Erasure: deletion of your personal data.
• Restriction: a pause in the processing of your data.
• Objection: you can object to processing based on legitimate interest.
• Portability: your data in a structured, machine-readable format.

Where processing rests on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting what was done beforehand.

To exercise any of these rights, write to contact@livinginjapanguide.com. We answer within one month.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with the French data protection authority, the CNIL, or with the supervisory authority of your country of residence.

Changes to this policy

We update this page whenever the tools or purposes described here change. The date at the top always reflects the current version. See also our legal notice for details of the publisher and the hosting provider.