Privacy

North Mariner is an independent Japan travel news site run by a small editorial team in Nagoya. This page describes what information we collect when you read the site or write to us, and how we handle it under Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI).

Operator: North Mariner, 〒460-0007 Aichi, Nagoya, Naka Ward, Shinsakae, 1-31-25 · editorial@north-mariner.com.

Planning a trip with us does not require an account, a booking or an email address. We run no analytics and no advertising tags.

Our hosting provider records standard request data (IP address, browser, page and time) in server logs that exist to keep the site available and secure. Those logs are not used to identify or profile readers.

A lot of what we publish starts as a reader question: will the rail pass cover this route, does that passport need a visa, when do the leaves turn in Aomori.

The contact form opens your own email app with the message ready, so we receive only what you send: your name, your email address and your message. Email sent directly, and calls to +81 52-262-5674, are handled the same way.

To answer you, to check and correct an article, or to decide which topic needs updating first. If your question inspires a piece, we describe the question, never the person, and we never publish travel dates, itineraries or anything else you tell us about your trip.

Do not send passport numbers, visa paperwork or booking references. We do not need them to answer, and if they arrive we remove them from the reply thread.

Only the editors handling your message. Our email and hosting providers process data for us under their own security commitments; where any of them store data outside Japan, we choose services that meet the protection standard the APPI requires.

We do not sell, rent or pass reader details to tour operators, airlines, hotels or anyone else.

Messages are kept while the conversation is active and for twelve months afterwards, so a follow-up question about the same trip can be answered in context. Correction requests are kept for two years. Server logs rotate after about thirty days.

You can ask to see the information we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, or to have us stop using it. Write to editorial@north-mariner.com from the address you used; we reply within 24 hours on working days, and there is no fee.

Articles link to rail operators, tourism boards, embassies and other publishers. Their privacy policies apply once you leave North Mariner.

Most people who write to us are outside Japan, planning a visit. We are based in Nagoya and follow the APPI. If the law where you live, such as the GDPR, gives you further rights over your data, tell us and we will handle the request the same way.

North Mariner is written for adult travellers. We do not knowingly keep messages from anyone under 16; if a parent lets us know one has arrived, we delete it.

Every answer comes from an editor on the Nagoya desk, not from an automated system, and reader messages are never used to build profiles or mailing lists.

The revision date at the top of this page shows when it last changed. Any new feature that handles personal data, a newsletter for example, will be described here before it launches.