Privacy Policy

e2japan operates a travel information website focused on Japan. Contact details are on our Contact page.

Depending on how you use the site, we may process:

• Usage data — pages and sections visited, locale (for example English or Japanese), approximate location derived by analytics providers (country/region), browser/device type, referral/UTM parameters, and timestamps
• First-party analytics events — encrypted-or-hashed visitor identifiers (not your name), event types such as page views and outbound clicks, and related metadata (for example hotel or landmark id, smoking-area spoke, content slug). These power our admin traffic reports and hotel-owner dashboards
• Site search queries — terms you type into our on-site search, truncated and stored for a limited retention period to improve search and content; we attempt to skip obvious secrets and bot traffic
• Account data — if you register for a business (owner) or admin account: name, email address, password (stored hashed), and related claim notes for hotel ownership verification
• Community map actions — confirm/report actions on smoking-map spots (counts and timestamps; vote rate limits may use your IP)
• Information you send us — email content and attachments you choose to send
• Cookies and similar technologies — see our Cookie Policy

We do not sell your personal information.

We use:

• First-party analytics on our servers (listing/page events, affiliate outbound redirects, search logs)
• Google Analytics 4 — may set cookies and process usage data under Google’s terms; we also send limited custom events (for example book clicks, search results views, claim submitted)
• Ahrefs Web Analytics — traffic measurement that may process IP/user-agent data
• Google AdSense — displays ads and may set advertising cookies or use similar technologies under Google’s terms; ad personalization and measurement follow Google’s policies and your cookie choice

Public advertising / media-kit figures may combine Google Search Console data (aggregated search performance) with filtered analytics. Raw bot/scraper traffic is not intentionally used for marketing claims.

When you click certain affiliate or “book / shop” links, we may route you through a short redirect on e2japan so we can record that a click occurred (partner, content context, timestamp, hashed visitor id) before sending you to the third party. Those partners have their own privacy policies.

We use information to:

• Operate, secure, and improve the website
• Measure content performance and prevent abuse/bots
• Provide hotel owners with listing analytics after a verified claim
• Understand which affiliate offers are used
• Show ads (including via Google AdSense) and measure ad performance
• Respond to inquiries and privacy requests

Where GDPR/UK GDPR applies, we typically rely on: legitimate interests (operating a public information site, security, aggregated analytics, affiliate measurement); contract (providing an account you request); and consent where required for non-essential cookies/marketing tags under local ePrivacy rules. You may object or withdraw consent where applicable.

Account data is kept while the account is active and for a reasonable period afterward if needed for security or disputes. First-party page/event rollups are kept as needed for statistics. On-site search query logs are retained for a limited window (currently about 90 days) then deleted. Third-party analytics retention follows each provider’s settings.

We share data with processors who help us run the site (hosting, email, analytics vendors) under appropriate terms. We may disclose information if required by law or to protect the site and users. Hotel owners who claim a listing only receive aggregated analytics about their own listing where we provide that feature—not raw personal profiles of visitors.

Depending on where you live (including under Japan’s APPI and, where applicable, GDPR/UK GDPR), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict processing of personal data, and to object to certain processing. Contact us via the Contact page with subject “Privacy request”. EEA/UK users may also lodge a complaint with their local data protection authority.

Our site is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

Our infrastructure and some vendors may process data outside your country (including the United States or Japan). Where required, we rely on appropriate transfer mechanisms provided by those vendors.

We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date on this page will change when we do.