Terms of Service

What Sumikoto is

Sumikoto is a search tool for vacant and low-cost residential property in Japan, operated by Sumikoto LLC, a Colorado limited liability company (“Sumikoto”, “we”, “us”). We collect listings that have already been made public by municipalities, prefectural portals, property owners, and agents, place them on a map with public hazard data, and link each one back to where it was published. Around that we offer tools — saved searches, email alerts, price history, hazard reports, data export, and an API — some free and some paid.

By using the website, creating an account, or calling the API you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

Listings and their sources

We do not create listings and we do not sell property. Every listing on Sumikoto is indexed from a third-party source that we identify on the listing page. The description, price, photographs, area, and other particulars are the publisher’s, reproduced so that you can find and compare them, and they may be inaccurate, out of date, or withdrawn without our knowledge.

A listing appearing on Sumikoto is not a representation by us that the property exists as described, is for sale at that price, is legally saleable, or is suitable for any purpose. Verify every particular with the original publisher and your own advisers before you act on it. Where a source asks us to remove a listing, we do.

Hazard and condition data

Flood, tsunami, landslide, and seismic ratings shown beside a listing are derived from published government hazard maps and from the listing’s own particulars (for example, a construction year measured against the 1981 seismic code revision). They are indicative. They are produced at the resolution of the underlying map, are matched to a listing by its coordinates, and can be wrong where either is imprecise.

Hazard data on Sumikoto is not a survey, an inspection, an engineering opinion, or advice. It is a reason to look further, never a reason not to. Before buying, commission a professional inspection and consult the official hazard map for the exact parcel.

We are not a real estate agent

Sumikoto is a finding aid. We do not act as an agent, broker, or intermediary for any party; we do not negotiate, introduce, or transact; and we hold no licence under Japan’s Real Estate Brokerage Act (宅地建物取引業法) or any equivalent. We take no commission, referral fee, or other payment connected to a property transaction. Our only revenue is the subscription described in these terms.

Any dealing you have with a publisher, owner, or agent you reach through Sumikoto is between you and them.

Accounts

You do not need an account to search. You need one to save a search, receive alerts, or subscribe. Accounts are passwordless: you sign in with a one-time link sent to your email address or, where offered, with a Google account. Your email address is your account, so keep access to it and tell us if it changes.

You are responsible for what happens under your account. You must be at least 18, give accurate information, and not create accounts to evade a limit or a suspension. One person, one account; an organisation that needs several seats should talk to us.

The free service

Every listing, the whole map, every filter, and the hazard data on each listing are free to use without an account and we intend to keep them so. With a free account you may also keep up to 3 saved searches, which do not send alerts.

Free means free of charge; it does not mean unlimited. We may apply rate limits and other reasonable measures to keep the service available to everyone (see Acceptable use).

Paid plans

We offer two paid plans, each a monthly subscription. Both give the same features; they differ only in price.

Prices are in US dollars and exclude any tax that applies where you live, which is added at checkout where we are required to collect it. Features, limits, and prices for new subscriptions may change; the current ones are always on the pricing page. A paid plan buys tools around the listings. It never buys access to listing data, which stays free for everyone.

The Founder plan

The Founder plan is Pro at a reduced monthly price, offered for a limited period while the product is new. Its terms are these:

• The price is locked. For as long as your Founder subscription remains continuously active, we will not raise its monthly price, even if the price of Pro or of new Founder subscriptions changes.
• You get everything Pro gets. Every feature included in Pro today, and every feature we add to Pro in future, at no extra charge.
• You can cancel whenever you like. There is no minimum term.
• The lock ends when the subscription does. If you cancel, or your subscription lapses because payment repeatedly fails, the locked price ends with it. You are welcome back, at whatever the current price is then.
• The lock applies to the plan price. It does not fix taxes, currency conversion by your bank, or the price of any separate product we might offer in future.

Billing, cancellation, and refunds

Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance through Stripe, our payment processor, and renew automatically until cancelled. We do not see or store your card number. By subscribing you authorise the recurring charge.

Cancel any time from your account page. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for; you keep the plan’s features until then and are not charged again. When it ends, your account returns to Free. Saved searches beyond the free limit are kept but paused, so nothing is lost if you return.

Because you can cancel at any point in a month and keep access to its end, we do not refund part-months. If something has gone wrong — you were charged after cancelling, or the service was unavailable for a substantial part of a period — write to support@sumikoto.com and we will put it right, including with a refund where that is the right answer. Nothing in this clause limits a refund right you have under the law where you live.

If a payment fails we retry it for a short period, during which your plan continues. If it keeps failing, the subscription ends and your account returns to Free.

Promotional codes and partner offers

A promotional code grants a paid plan free for a stated number of days. No card is taken and nothing is charged when it ends; your account simply returns to Free unless you choose to subscribe. Codes are for one use per person, may be limited in number or time, and may be withdrawn. A code obtained or used dishonestly — shared in bulk, applied across multiple accounts, or resold — may be revoked along with the access it granted.

Some codes are provided by partners, such as KickAssets. A partner may receive a share of subscription revenue from people who first arrived through their code. That share never changes the price you pay, and a partner has no access to your account or your data.

Exports and the API

Exports and the API are for your own use — research, analysis, a shortlist for a trip, an integration for your own tooling. They are subject to the volume limits on the pricing page and to reasonable rate limits. You may not use them to build a competing catalogue, to republish listings in bulk, or to resell access.

Listing content you export remains the property of its publisher and subject to whatever terms they attach to it; we pass it on as a finding aid, not as a licence. Keep your API key secret. It identifies you, and requests made with it are yours.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• crawl, scrape, or bulk-download the website other than through the API and within its limits, or in ways that degrade the service for others;
• circumvent a limit, a paywall, a rate limit, or an access control, or probe the service for vulnerabilities without our written permission;
• use the service to harass, defraud, or misrepresent yourself to any property owner, publisher, or other person;
• use listing or hazard data in a way that is unlawful, or that would be unlawful for us to enable;
• impersonate Sumikoto or suggest we endorse a property, a service, or a transaction.

If you find a security problem, tell us at support@sumikoto.com. We will not pursue anyone who reports one in good faith.

Our content and yours

The Sumikoto name, mark, interface, software, and the way we organise, derive, and present data are ours. Listing content belongs to its publishers. Hazard data is derived from public government sources under their respective terms. Basemap tiles are provided by CARTO and OpenStreetMap contributors under their licences.

What you save on Sumikoto — searches, alert settings, a watchlist — is yours. You give us only the permission needed to store it and act on it for you, such as to run a saved search and email you the result. You can delete it, or your whole account, at any time — searches from the account page, the account itself by writing to us.

No warranty

The service is provided “as is” and “as available”. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or error-free, that any listing is accurate or available, that any hazard rating is complete or correct for a particular parcel, or that the service is fit for a decision to buy, sell, lend against, insure, or live in a property. To the fullest extent the law allows, we exclude all implied warranties.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential loss, or for any loss of profit, opportunity, or data, arising from your use of the service or from reliance on any listing or hazard information on it — including any decision to purchase, or not purchase, a property. Our total liability to you for any claim connected with the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or under consumer protection law that applies to you.

Suspension and termination

You may close your account at any time by writing to us. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, that is used to attack or degrade the service, or where the law requires us to. If we close a paid account for a reason other than your breach, we refund the unused part of the current period. Clauses that by their nature should survive — on listing data, warranty, liability, and governing law — survive termination.

Changes to the service and these terms

We will keep changing the service, and we may withdraw features that do not work out. We will not move listing data behind a paid plan. If we change these terms in a way that matters, we will tell subscribers by email and post the new effective date here at least 14 days before it applies; continuing to use the service after that date is acceptance. If you do not accept a change, cancel before it takes effect and you will not be charged again.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any claim that cannot be resolved between us is brought in the state or federal courts sitting in Denver, Colorado, and each of us submits to their jurisdiction — except that if you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of, and the right to bring a claim in, the place where you live. Before either of us starts a formal claim, we agree to try to resolve the matter by email first, and to give it thirty days.

Contact

Questions about these terms, a billing problem, a listing that should come down, a hazard rating that looks wrong: support@sumikoto.com.