Terms of Service

This page is a reference translation. The authoritative Japanese version prevails in case of any discrepancy.

Terms of Service

Language notice: These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are authored in Japanese as the authoritative language. Versions in English, Chinese, Korean, or other languages are reference translations provided for the convenience of readers; in case of any discrepancy, the Japanese version prevails (Article 18).

Effective date: 2026-XX-XX Last amended: 2026-XX-XX

Article 1 (Application)

  1. These Terms govern the relationship between the operator (the "Operator") of the website "jpcost.keydrop.net" (the "Site") and any person who accesses or uses the Site or its features and content (collectively, the "Service") (the "User").
  2. By using the Service, the User is deemed to have agreed to all provisions of these Terms. If the User does not agree, the User shall not use the Service.

Article 2 (Definitions)

In these Terms, the following terms have the meanings set forth below.

  1. "The Data" means consumer price index (CPI) figures, foreign exchange rates, monthly cost estimates, and any other numbers, text, or charts presented to the User on the Service.
  2. "Third-party services" means any features or services provided by entities other than the Operator, including but not limited to Google Analytics, Google AdSense, and the Frankfurter API.
  3. "Public institutions" means the Statistics Bureau of Japan, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, and any other governmental, local-government, or public-statistics agency.

Article 3 (Use)

  1. The Service is provided free of charge and does not require User registration or account creation.
  2. The User shall, at their own cost and risk, prepare the equipment, network, and electricity necessary to access the Service.
  3. The Operator grants the User a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service.

Article 4 (Fees)

The Service is provided free of charge. The Operator may, at its discretion, introduce paid features or plans in the future, in which case separate terms will apply.

Article 5 (Prohibited acts)

The User shall not engage in any of the following:

  1. Acts that violate laws, these Terms, or public order;
  2. Acts that infringe the rights or interests of the Operator, other Users, or third parties;
  3. Acts that impose an undue load on the Service's servers, network, or systems (including automated crawling, scraping, or mass access);
  4. Decompiling, reverse engineering, copying, modifying, or redistributing the Service's source code, data, or features;
  5. Reselling or redistributing The Data obtained from the Service for commercial purposes;
  6. Spreading false information through the Service, or damaging the Service's or the Operator's reputation;
  7. Circumventing or disabling the Service's security features (including the cookie consent mechanism, CSP, and other access controls);
  8. Any other act the Operator reasonably deems inappropriate.

Article 6 (Modification, suspension, and termination of the Service)

  1. The Operator may modify the content, features, design, specifications, or terms of the Service at any time without prior notice to the User.
  2. The Operator may suspend or terminate all or part of the Service at any time, without prior notice, for system maintenance, incident response, third-party service changes, or any other reason the Operator deems necessary.
  3. The Operator shall not be liable for any damages incurred by the User or any third party arising from such modification, suspension, or termination.

Article 7 (Nature of The Data and disclosure of independent aggregation)

  1. The Data is derivative information that the Operator obtains via public APIs or data sources (e-Stat — the Portal Site of Official Statistics of Japan; Frankfurter API; and others) and aggregates, processes, and corrects through the Operator's own logic — including time-window filtering, monthly-only filters, area-code selection, L1/L3 hierarchy aggregation, FX conversion, weighting of lifestyle baseline values, and computation of historical change rates.
  2. The Data is in no way the official figures published by any public institution or data provider. The Data is provided strictly as a reference value and shall not be used as a substitute or proxy for official statistics.
  3. Due to factors including the API responses at the time of fetching, the Operator's aggregation logic, FX retrieval timing, and provisional settings of lifestyle baseline values (rough estimates referencing the Family Income and Expenditure Survey), The Data may contain errors, delays, omissions, or interpretive inconsistencies.
  4. The Operator makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, currency, usefulness, fitness for a particular purpose, or consistency with official statistics of The Data.
  5. The User shall, where necessary, verify primary sources from the relevant public institutions (e.g., the official e-Stat website and methodology documents of each statistical table).

Article 8 (Disclaimer regarding calculation results)

  1. Any monthly cost-of-living estimates, FX conversions, historical price-trend analyses, city comparisons, country comparisons, and other calculation results provided by the Service (the "Calculation Results") are reference, approximate, and estimated values computed by the Operator's proprietary algorithms based on the User's selected conditions and The Data, and they do not guarantee the User's actual cost of living, expenditure, income requirements, or required funds.
  2. The Calculation Results do not account for the circumstances of any specific individual, household, or business, and are merely statistical and indicative figures based on typical assumptions.
  3. The User shall not rely on the Calculation Results as the basis for any decision-making, including decisions about relocation, residence, travel, employment, investment, taxation, remittance, education enrollment, or contract execution. When making such decisions, the User shall consult separately with qualified professionals such as certified public accountants, tax accountants, attorneys, administrative scriveners, real-estate agents, or immigration specialists.
  4. The Operator shall not be liable for any consequence (including but not limited to economic loss, opportunity loss, mental distress, litigation, or administrative action) arising from the User's reliance on the Calculation Results.

Article 9 (Third-party services and advertising)

  1. The Service incorporates third-party services including Google Analytics 4, Google AdSense, the Frankfurter API, and others. The Operator shall not be liable for the operation, availability, content, advertisements, or linked sites of such third-party services.
  2. Advertisements displayed on the Service (via Google AdSense and others) are delivered under the responsibility of third parties. The Operator is not involved in, and shall not be liable for, the content of advertisements, transactions with advertisers, or any trouble (product/service defects, payment issues, data breach, etc.) arising on third-party sites accessed via the advertisements.
  3. Disputes between the User and advertisers or third-party site operators shall be resolved between the User and the relevant third party.

Article 10 (Relationship with public institutions and data providers)

  1. The Service is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or approved by the Statistics Bureau of Japan, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, or any other public institution or data provider.
  2. The display of public-institution names, statistical-table numbers, or URLs on the Service does not imply that the Service's content is officially guaranteed by such institution.
  3. The Operator's use of The Data is conducted at the Operator's own discretion in compliance with the terms and copyright policies of each data provider. If those terms or policies change in a way that affects the Service, the Operator may suspend the relevant data without prior notice.

Article 11 (Intellectual property)

  1. The copyrights and other intellectual property rights in the Service's source code, design, logos, and content originally created by the Operator (including the editorial articles on city pages, country-comparison commentary, and the item-name English dictionary) belong to the Operator or its rightful licensors.
  2. The copyrights in The Data originating from public institutions belong to the relevant data providers, the Government of Japan, or other rightful holders. Use of The Data via the Service is subject to the terms of each provider.
  3. The User shall not copy, distribute, modify, or publicly transmit the Service's content beyond the scope of private use. When citing or referring to the Service, the User shall indicate the Service's URL.

Article 12 (Personal information and cookies)

The handling of personal information, the use of cookies, integration with Google Analytics and Google AdSense, and consent management based on Consent Mode v2 are governed by the separately published "Privacy Policy". By using the Service, the User is deemed to have agreed to that Privacy Policy.

Article 13 (Disclaimer)

  1. The Operator makes no warranty, express or implied, regarding merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement of third-party rights, continuous provision, or completeness of security with respect to the Service.
  2. The Operator shall not be liable for any false information, mistranslations, bugs, viruses, unauthorized third-party access, server failures, network interruptions, or similar matters affecting the Service.
  3. The Operator shall not be liable for any dispute between the User and another User or third party. The User shall resolve such disputes at their own cost and responsibility.

Article 14 (Limitation of liability)

  1. Except as otherwise required by law, the Operator's total liability to the User shall in no case exceed JPY 0 (since the Service is provided free of charge).
  2. The Operator shall not be liable for any indirect, special, consequential, incidental, or other derivative damages, lost profits, loss of data, or business interruption suffered by the User or any third party, regardless of foreseeability.
  3. The preceding paragraphs shall not apply to cases of the Operator's intentional misconduct or gross negligence; even in such cases, the Operator's liability shall be limited to direct damages that ordinarily arise from the relevant act.

Article 15 (Amendments)

  1. The Operator may amend these Terms at any time without individual notice to the User.
  2. The amended Terms take effect upon posting on the Site. If the User uses the Service after the amendment, the User is deemed to have agreed to the amended Terms.
  3. For material changes, the Operator will make reasonable efforts to provide notice on the Site (e.g., banners or change-log pages).

Article 16 (Governing law)

These Terms and any matter relating to the Service shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of Japan.

Article 17 (Jurisdiction)

Any dispute arising between the Operator and the User in connection with the Service or these Terms shall be submitted to the Tokyo District Court as the court of exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance.

Article 18 (Language priority)

  1. The authoritative version of these Terms is the Japanese version.
  2. Translations into English, Chinese, Korean, or other languages posted on the Site are reference translations provided for the convenience of readers.
  3. In the event of any discrepancy, mistranslation, ambiguity, or contradiction between a translation and the Japanese version, the Japanese version shall always prevail. The User is responsible for understanding the precise meaning of these Terms and shall consult, where necessary, with a Japanese-proficient professional.

Article 19 (Severability)

If any provision (or part thereof) of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by law or by a court, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect, and the invalid or unenforceable provision shall be replaced, to the extent reasonable, with one that achieves the original economic intent.

Article 20 (Contact)

Inquiries regarding these Terms or the Service should be sent to the contact listed on the Site. The Operator gives no warranty regarding the obligation or timing of any response.

Operator: (operator name, address, and contact to be added) Effective date: 2026-XX-XX