Terms of service
These terms apply to every order you place with Koseki Roots, run by Mitsuru Otaka in Japan ("we"). By placing an order, you agree to them. If anything here is unclear, email us before you order.
1. What we provide
We transcribe and translate Japanese family registers (koseki) and related documents into English for family-history purposes. We also make family tree charts, write reports on your ancestral village and the families of your name there, and prepare guides for visiting your ancestral village. Each service is described on our home page and on its own service page. We deliver the results as PDF files: reports, translations, charts and guides. Other services, such as visits to your ancestral village on your behalf, are quoted separately, and these terms apply to them too.
2. How we work
We use AI software (from Anthropic, a US company) to make a first reading of handwritten pages and a first draft of the translation. A person then checks every entry against the original image before delivery. We mark readings we cannot confirm.
3. What we do not provide
- We do not prepare or file requests to Japanese government offices on your behalf. You can make the request yourself, or engage a licensed administrative scrivener (gyōseishoshi) under a separate contract with the scrivener.
- Our reports are not certified translations. Do not use them for immigration, nationality, court or other official purposes.
- We do not give legal advice, including advice on inheritance or land registration in Japan.
- The Hometown Visit Guide does not include contacting temples, relatives or offices in Japan for you; it tells you how to contact them yourself. Nor does it include visits on your behalf; a visit is a separate service, quoted separately.
- We do not search for living people or look into another person's background, for example a fiancé, an employee or a neighbor. We do not accept any order that aims to discriminate against a person or a family.
4. Accuracy
Old handwritten registers can be hard to read, and some pages are damaged. We check every entry against the original image and flag readings we cannot confirm. Even so, we cannot promise that every reading is correct.
5. Orders and payment
Send us your request through our website or by email. We reply within two business days. If we can take the order, we confirm three things by email:
- the service
- the total price in US dollars. The price includes all our fees for the PDF; we add no sales tax or VAT.
- the delivery date
We then send a payment link. Some services follow different steps:
- Koseki Family Tree, Chronicle + Family Tree and Document Reading: we first check that your images are readable and send the payment link only after that.
- Family Chronicle and Chronicle + Family Tree: each requires a Roots Report, which you order and pay for first, separately from the book. If the Report shows too few records for a book, we tell you so, and you need not order anything more. The delivery time of the book is counted from the day you pay for it, which you do after we deliver your Report.
- Gifts: we put the names and message you give us on the cover and email the PDF to you, not to the recipient.
You pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through Stripe, or by PayPal on request. We begin work after you pay, and we tell you by email when work begins.
6. Cancellation and refunds
- Before work begins, you can cancel for a full refund.
- After work begins, you can still cancel. We refund the price less the part of the work already done, and we tell you how we worked it out.
- If we cannot read a page of a register or document you sent, we refund the part of the price that covers it.
- If you are not satisfied with a delivered report, tell us within 30 days of delivery. We will review it. If we find an error on our side, we correct it free of charge. If we find no error, we explain our reading by email.
- We count you as unreachable when our emails to every address you have given us, including the one you used to pay, bounce back. The same applies when we need your reply to go on and get none. While you are unreachable, we pause the work and hold delivery. If, 30 days after you pay, you are still unreachable, we cancel the order. We then refund your payment less the payment processing fee we were charged and, if work had begun, less the part already done. This does not apply where the law gives you a right to a full refund.
- We pay refunds within 15 days after you cancel or after we agree that a refund is due, to the card or account you paid with.
7. Delivery and delays
We deliver PDF files by email. Printed or hardbound copies, if quoted and ordered, are sent by international post; import duties, if any, are paid by the recipient. Delivery times are estimates, not guarantees: every record gets the care it needs. If we expect to be late, we email you before the delivery date. If we have not delivered within 30 days after the date we confirmed, you may cancel for a full refund.
8. Customers in the EU and the UK
If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may withdraw from your order within 14 days. If you ask us to begin work within those 14 days and later withdraw, you pay for the work done up to that point. Once we have delivered the complete service at your request, you can no longer withdraw. Before we begin, we ask you to confirm this by email.
9. Your documents
You confirm that you are entitled to hold and share the documents you send us, and that you are sending them to learn about your own family. Family registers can name living relatives. Our privacy policy explains how we handle them.
10. Using what we deliver
You and your family may use the reports and charts we deliver for any personal purpose: you may print them, share them with relatives, and post them on family-history websites. You may not sell them or use them for any business. We will not use your family's material as a sample or in any publication without your written consent.
11. Our liability
Our liability for ordinary negligence is limited to the price you paid for the order in question. This limit does not apply to loss we cause intentionally or through gross negligence. It also does not apply where the law of the country where you live does not allow us to limit our liability.
12. Governing law and courts
These terms are governed by the laws of Japan, and the Chiba District Court in Japan has non-exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live. You also keep any right those laws give you to bring a claim in your local courts.
13. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. The terms in force when you placed your order apply to that order.
14. Contact
We handle all questions by email, in English: koseki@shume.jp. The seller's details are in our legal notice.