Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 2nd, 2024.

This policy explains how we collect and treat any information you give us. We comply with the General Data Protection Regulations, the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) and the CAN SPAM Act.

The Japan Cheapo privacy policy covers

Ways that we collect information
What information we hold
How and where we store your information
What we use your information for
Third party services that we use
Who’s responsible for your information at our company
Who has access to information about you
The steps we take to keep your information private
How to make a complaint
CalOPPA specific provisions
CAN SPAM Act provisions
Changes to the policy

Ways that we collect information

We collect contact information including your name, email address, phone number, and address on our website only for handling enquiries, fulfilling information requests, receiving bookings and taking orders.

We collect your email address, name (when provided) and the country in which you are located when you sign up for one of our newsletters.

We track users to our site with cookies (cookies are a small piece of data stored in your web browser when you visit our website read more here). Cookies are not connected to any other information that you might submit to us such as email addresses, names, addresses or any other personally identifiable information.

What information we hold

When you contact us by email or through our website, we collect your name, email address, phone number and company (if you provide this).

When you buy or order something from us, we may collect your name, email address, phone number, billing address, passport number, flight information, travel dates and ports of entry and exit from the country.

If you do business with us, we also collect your business name, bank details and we keep records of the invoices we send you and the payments you make.

Purchases through the website are processed by our payment providers Stripe or PayPal. We have no access to your credit card information.

Where we store your information

When you contact us by email or through our website, your information is stored on our email server or in Gmail – a service offered by Google. If you are a business client of ours, we store your information in our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, in our own accounts software and on Google Drive. If you sign up for a newsletter, we store your email address, name and the country in which you are located in MailChimp (mailchimp.com). When you buy, order or reserve something, your information is stored in our database and (when payment is made through the site) with our payment provider. All third party services use best practice security and we use strong passwords when we access them.

What we use your information for

We use the information you give us to send you newsletters which include news about our site and also offers from our advertising partners. You have the option to unsubscribe from any and all communication. All automated email communication includes “unsubscribe” links so that you can stop receiving communication from us.

We also use your information to complete orders, purchases and requests. If an order or purchase requires fulfillment by a third party vendor, we pass your information to that third party. We only pass on personally identifiable information to third parties that is required in order to complete the purchase, order or enquiry. No payment or credit card information is passed to third parties.

For allowing our visitors to buy or order certain products or services (such as concert tickets), we use some third party ordering systems. We collect information necessary to fullfil your order as does the third party provider.

Additionally, we use our own and third party cookies to serve ads and track site usage. All cookie data is anonymized and contains no personally identifiable information such as name, email address, gender, age or postal address. Information collected through cookies may include information such as general location, IP address, pages visited, browser version and the type of device that you are viewing our site on.

Our site is free for all to use because we receive income from ad revenue. tracking through cookies helps us to improve the experience of using the site and to adapt the content to you depending on your usage and locations. For example, we can display prices in your local currency and we can stop a notice appearing to you on each page if you have already dismissed it once.

Third party services that we use

E-commerce and Mailing List
For ordering of some concert and event tickets, we use Zaiko. You can see their privacy policy here.

We use Stripe and PayPal for receiving payments. You can find the Stripe Privacy Policy here and the PayPal privacy policy here.

We use MailChimp to manage email lists and campaigns. Their privacy policy is here.

We use Stay22 to suggest travel services to our readers. You can read the Stay22 Privacy Policy here.

Analytics and Advertising
We use Google Analytics to track site usage so that we can improve the site experience and develop new articles and content. You can wiew the Google Privacy Policy here.

We use Meta (Facebook), Sojern, Adara, Crimtan, and Crazy Egg to collect data for serving ads and to obtain user insights for improving the site experience and develop new articles and content. Meta (Facebook’s) privacy policy is here, Sojern’s privacy policy is here, Adara’s privacy policy is here, Crimtan’s privacy policy is here, and Crazy Egg’s privacy policy is here.

We use DoubleClick, Adsense and ADX by Google to manage and serve ads. You can see the Google Privacy Policy here.

And via the Google platforms, advertising and analytics may be loaded from the companies listed below:

Data collect via the Google platforms and associated third parties can be stored up to 390 days. If you would like to have your data removed, please contact these companies. You can also modify your advertising personalization settings with Google and AdChoices. A full list of the third party advertisers and their privacy policies can be found here.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

We work with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

IP Address
Operating System type
Operating System version
Device Type
Language of the website
Web browser type
Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

These technology partners intend to use analytics and behavioral data across sites and apps for the following features and purposes:

Matching Data to Offline Sources: Combining data from offline sources that were initially collected in other contexts.

Linking Devices: Allow processing of a user’s data to connect such user across multiple devices.

Precise Geographic Location Data: Allow processing of a user’s precise geographic location data in support of a purpose for which that certain third party has consent.

Information storage and access: The storage of information, or access to information that is already stored, on your device such as advertising identifiers, device identifiers, cookies, and similar technologies.

Personalisation: The collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise advertising and/or content for you in other contexts, such as on other websites or apps, over time. Typically, the content of the site or app is used to make inferences about your interests, which inform future selection of advertising and/or content.

Ad selection, delivery, reporting: The collection of information, and combination with previously collected information, to select and deliver advertisements for you, and to measure the delivery and effectiveness of such advertisements. This includes using previously collected information about your interests to select ads, processing data about what advertisements were shown, how often they were shown, when and where they were shown, and whether you took any action related to the advertisement, including for example clicking an ad or making a purchase. This does not include personalisation, which is the collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise advertising and/or content for you in other contexts, such as websites or apps, over time.

Content selection, delivery, reporting: The collection of information, and combination with previously collected information, to select and deliver content for you, and to measure the delivery and effectiveness of such content. This includes using previously collected information about your interests to select content, processing data about what content was shown, how often or how long it was shown, when and where it was shown, and whether the you took any action related to the content, including for example clicking on content. This does not include personalisation, which is the collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise content and/or advertising for you in other contexts, such as websites or apps, over time.

Measurement: The collection of information about your use of the content, and combination with previously collected information, used to measure, understand, and report on your usage of the service. This does not include personalisation, the collection of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise content and/or advertising for you in other contexts, i.e. on other service, such as websites or apps, over time.

Who’s responsible for your information at our company

Greg Lane, our CTO, is responsible for the security of your information. You can contact him by email at greg.lane@fasttrainltd.com if you have any concerns about the information we store.

Who has access to information about you

When we store information in our own systems, only the people who need it have access. Our management team have access to everything you’ve provided, but individual employees have access to only what they need to do their job.

The steps we take to keep your information private

All pages on our site are sent to your web browser over a secure, encrypted “https” connection. All data submitted through our site and to third party services is also transmitted over a secure, encrypted connection.

Where we store your information on third-party services, we restrict access only to people who need it. We use different randomly generated passwords for each service, and we never use the same password twice.

How to complain

We take complaints very seriously. If you’ve any reason to complain about the ways we handle your privacy, please contact Greg Lane by email at greg.lane [ put at mark here ] fasttrainltd.com or by post to Fast Train Ltd., 9-2-13 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo

CalOPPA Specific Provisions

According to CalOPPA we agree to the following:

Users can visit our site anonymously
Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page, or as a minimum on the first significant page after entering our website.
Our Privacy Policy link includes the word ‘Privacy’, and can be easily be found on the page specified above.

Users will be notified of any privacy policy changes:
On our Privacy Policy Page

Users are able to change their personal information:
By logging in to their account

How does our site handle do not track signals?

We honor them and do not track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track (DNT) browser mechanism is in place.

Does our site allow third party behavioral tracking?

We do not allow

COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)

We do not specifically market to children under 13

Fair Information Practices

In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:
We will notify the users via email within 7 business days

We agree to the individual redress principle, which requires that individuals have a right to pursue legally enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or a government agency to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors

CAN SPAM Act

We collect your email address:

To send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.
To market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our clients after the original transaction has occurred

To be accordance with CANSPAM we agree to the following:

We will NOT use false, or misleading subjects or email addresses
We will identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way
We will include the physical address of our business or site headquarters
We will monitor third party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used.
We will honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly
We will give an ‘opt-out’ or ‘unsubscribe’ option

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can
Follow the instructions at the bottom of each email.