Privacy Policy

Authentic Japan (“we”, “us”) operates the website at japanauthentic.com — a travel guide and trip-planning tool for visitors to Japan. This policy explains what information we collect, why, and the choices you have. If you have any questions, contact us at info@lights-more.jp.

We do not require an account, and we do not ask for your name, email address, or payment details. The information involved is:

• Analytics data (only with your consent). If you accept cookies, Google Analytics 4 collects anonymous usage data — pages viewed, approximate location (derived from IP, not stored by us), device and browser type, and how you move through the site. We use this only to understand and improve the site.
• Trip-planner inputs. The travel preferences you enter into the planner (region, budget, interests, hotel type, and free-text wishes) are sent to our AI provider to generate recommendations and stored against an anonymous, randomly generated ID — never your name, email, or account — so we can run and improve the planner.
• Trip profile (only with your consent). The planner also asks three optional questions: which month you plan to travel, who you are travelling with, and whether it is your first visit to Japan. These are only kept if you tick the box offering them for anonymous travel-trend statistics. If you leave it unticked, your plan is generated exactly the same way and these answers are discarded rather than stored.
• Consent record. When you use the planner we record whether you gave that consent, the version of this policy shown to you, and a one-way hash of your IP address (never the address itself), so we can demonstrate what was agreed to and when.
• Article engagement (only with your consent). If you accept cookies, we record which affiliate links you click and how far you scroll in an article, against the same anonymous ID. We use this to understand which content and recommendations are useful, and never to identify you personally.
• Server logs. Our hosting provider processes your IP address transiently to deliver pages and to rate-limit abuse. We do not use it to build a profile of you.

The site sets two kinds of cookies. Google Analytics cookies are not set unless you press “Accept” on the cookie banner. A separate anonymous ID cookie identifies your browser (not you) so we can link planner inputs and — only after you accept the cookie banner — article engagement to the same anonymous visitor. If you decline, no analytics cookies are stored, no analytics data is sent, and no article engagement is recorded.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the “Cookie settings” link in the site footer. Declining also removes any Google Analytics cookies already present in your browser.

We combine planner answers into aggregated statistics — for example, “how many visitors asked about Kyoto in April” or “what share of first-time visitors travel as a family”. We may publish these statistics, or provide them to third parties such as tourism organisations, local authorities, and travel businesses, including on a paid basis.

These reports are built only from aggregate counts. They never include your free-text wishes, your anonymous ID, your IP address, or any other field that could single you out, and the trip-profile answers described above are included only where consent was given. We do not sell personal information.

We rely on a small number of service providers. Each only receives the data needed for its function:

• Google (Analytics & Places API) — website analytics (consent-based) and place photos, ratings, and map links shown in recommendations.
• Anthropic — the AI provider that turns your planner inputs into recommendations.
• Vercel — our hosting provider, which serves the site and processes request logs.
• Pexels — stock photography displayed in articles.
• Klook — some outbound links are affiliate links. If you click one, Klook’s own privacy policy governs what happens on their site.
• Supabase — our database provider, which stores planner inputs and consent-based article engagement against the anonymous ID described above.

These providers may process data outside your country of residence, including in the United States. Where required, such transfers rely on the safeguards offered by the respective provider.

Some outbound links in our articles are affiliate links. If you book through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This never changes which places we recommend.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI), or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) — including the right to access, correct, or delete personal data, and to object to its processing. Because we do not maintain accounts or store identifiable profiles, we hold very little data about any individual. To make a request or ask a question, email us at info@lights-more.jp.

This site is intended for adults planning travel. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

We may update this policy as the site evolves. The “Last updated” date above always reflects the current version.