Site policy

The “Hirogaru, get more of Japan and Japanese” website (hereafter “this site”) is operated by The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai based on the following terms of service. By accessing this site and using its services, all users of this site are agreeing to this site policy.

Exemption of responsibility
  1. The utmost care is given to security on this site. However, this does not guarantee that the possibility of mistaken contents resulting from uncontrollable factors, such as falsification by a third party, is completely eliminated. The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai does not bear responsibility for any damage to persons resulting from the use of this site or information on this site.
  2. In order to facilitate the convenience of people using this site, this site includes contents, links, and other information suggested by third parties and translations of these items carried out by The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai for which The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai does not have responsibility.
Copyrights
  1. The copyrights (or intellectual property rights) for information carried on this site, such as text, illustrations, pictures, audio and images, all belong to The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai unless otherwise stated.
  2. All or part of the information carried on this site cannot be reprinted or reproduced for any purpose other than private use.
  3. The information carried on this site can be quoted for mainly educational purposes, etc. and within the scope specified by law. In this case, please give credit in the following way: for example, “Courtesy of The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai” or “Source: The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai.”
About Comments
  1. Users of this site can post their feedback, ratings, opinions and others (hereafter “comments”) in the Comments content of this site on the condition that they comply with the site policy (A user posting the concerned comment is hereafter called “poster.”). A poster is personally responsible for the comments they post. Any inquiry, request, claims or demand from third parties on the posted comments will be their sole responsibility. The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai will not be responsible for any content in the comments.
  2. For comments, the copyright belongs to the poster of the concerned comment. However, the poster gives The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai the right to reproduce, make available, make available and transmit to the public, and other rights within the scope necessary for the purpose of operating and promoting this site. The poster will not exert their author’s moral rights on the posted comments against The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai.
  3. The user will not make any of the following posts.
    • a post in violation of a law, regulation or treaty
    • a post in violation of public order and morals
    • a post infringing on the property, reputation, credibility, copyright, patent right, utility model right, design right, trademark right, portrait right, publicity right, privacy right and other rights of The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai or others
    • a post threatening, slandering, maligning, discriminating, etc., against The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai or others that may cause a sense of aversion, or economic or moral injury
    • a post that is, or is likely, contrary to facts
    • a post publicizing or soliciting for a specific political idea, belief or religion
    • a post with the aim of soliciting, such as commercial advertising or publicity, spam mail, chain letter and others
  4. If a poster’s comments are determined as falling within the scope of prohibited posts given in the preceding clause, or if it is deemed necessary for other reasons (including when the content itself, where the comments were posted, was deleted), The Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai may delete, not display or perform other actions on the concerned comments on this site without the poster’s consent and without explaining the reason to the poster, and the poster gives their consent to this beforehand.
  5. Scope of application
    Apart from the comments posted on this site, the provisions given in the previous clauses also apply to posted comments related to the content on webpages managed by The Japan Foundation (including pages on social networking service sites such as Facebook and others).
Use environment
  • Recommended OS/browsers

    In order to facilitate perusal and use of this site, we recommend the following browsers. As far as possible, please view the site using the latest version.

    Recommended OS
    • Windows 10 or above
    • macOS 10.15 or above
    • Android 8.1 or above
    • iOS 13 or above
    Recommended browsers
    • Microsoft Edge latest version
    • Google Chrome latest version
    • Safari latest version

    However, depending on your user environment, you might not be able to use some of the services provided on this site.

Basic privacy policy
We will use the opinions and impressions of users collected via the ‘Contact us’ or ‘Request’ section as a reference when managing the site and to help in its continuous improvement. We may contact users via the email address they provide. The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai will not intentionally reveal information collected from users than can identify an individual to a third party. However, this excludes the following 2 exceptional cases:
  1. If disclosure or provision is demanded by law or regulation by an official institution.
  2. If, when the processing of information collected by The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai is consigned to an outside business, etc., information is revealed within the scope necessary for the performance of the said work.
Security
The Japan Foundation is taking reasonable steps to prevent the unexpected disclosure of collected information to third parties. However, regardless of the security measures taken by The Japan Foundation, please note that this does not fully guarantee security against leakage, etc. of information that can personally identify each user.
Cookies
Cookies are data files sent from a website to a user’s computer. They enable the website to read from the user’s computer when the user visits the site again. Some pages on this site use the cookies function to save the user the trouble of inputting details every time, collect history information on pages visited by the user, etc. Personal information about users is not obtained through cookies. Furthermore, the user can reject the acceptance of cookies. In this case, though, it might not be possible to use some of the services provided on this site.
Other
  1. The information and URL of this site may be changed or deleted without advance notification.
  2. While the utmost care is taken to ensure the accuracy of information carried on this site, The Japan Foundation, Japanese-Language Institute, Kansai does not bear any responsibility whatsoever for any actions taken by users after using this site.
  3. Due to technical limitations of the electronic media, fonts, etc. might differ from those in printed publicity materials (for example, machine-dependent characters, personal names).
  4. Due to system disorder, maintenance, etc., the supply of information from this site might be temporarily suspended.