Privacy Policy
The Yomiuri Shimbun (The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, The Yomiuri Shimbun, The Yomiuri Shimbun Osaka and The Yomiuri Shimbun Seibu; collectively, “Yomiuri” or “we” or “us” or “our”) considers it our natural responsibility to manage personal data, including personal information, in a strict and appropriate manner.
We will handle personal data obtained from users of The Japan News website and other English websites operated by Yomiuri (collectively, the “Websites”) in accordance with this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”). We will comply with the “Yomiuri Shimbun Group Privacy Portal,” but if there is any conflict between this Policy and the contents of the Group Privacy Portal, this Policy shall prevail.
1. Acquisition of personal data
We may collect your personal data when you use the Websites in the following cases.
In addition, when minors use the Websites, they need to obtain the consent of a legal representative, such as a person with parental authority. We will not intentionally collect personal data from minors.
(1) Membership registration and use
– When you register as a member and sign up for, confirm, or cancel services in accordance with Membership Terms & Conditions of The Japan News Website
– When you purchase or sign up for products or services
– When you sign up for a subscription to a newspaper, book, magazine, or other publication
– When you apply for contests and campaigns such as quizzes and giveaways
– When you respond to a questionnaire, or other survey
– When you sign up for events such as seminars and exhibitions
– When you apply for a project that Yomiuri has been commissioned to conduct by an advertiser or partner company or others
(2) When you make an inquiry or express an opinion about the Websites
(3) When you ask us to disclose, correct, delete, or restrict or suspend use of personal data
(4) When we acquire your personal data from our business partners
We may obtain personal data about you (including your site browsing history collected through cookies and other terminal identifiers) from our business partners and link it to your personal data that you offer in cases where you sign up for services or in other situations
(5) When you access the Websites
2. Personal data collected by Yomiuri
Yomiuri may collect the following personal data.
(1) Member registration information
Yomiuri may collect the following personal data when you register as a member on the Websites:
– Name, email address, password set by you, postal code, address, telephone number, gender, date of birth, working status, payment information (credit card number, etc.) and payment history, etc.
(2) Information provided by social media
When you register or log in using the social login function, personal data provided by the social media, such as account information of the social media.
(3) Access data
To improve services, display content tailored to your preferences, and target advertising, we collect the following access data when you visit the Websites. Some of the access data may be combined with membership registration information. We use cookies and other technology to collect the data.
– Date and time the customer browsed the Websites, the URLs browsed, number of visits, etc.
– Your terminal information (IP address, operating system, browser type, etc.)
– Sources of inflow, such as external websites and social media sites that customers visited before accessing our Websites, etc.
3. Purpose of use
Yomiuri will use your personal data for the following purposes. We will handle your personal data only to the extent necessary to achieve the specified purpose, except in cases where Yomiuri has obtained your prior consent or where permitted by law. There may be cases in which we will notify or indicate to you via different means that your personal data will be used.
(1) For the provision of services
– Procedures related to membership registration, service contract and management
– To provide services for members, authenticate members, and confirm or change newspaper subscription status
– To provide content that meets your preferences, such as displaying recommended articles
– Purchase procedures and management for subscribers to publications
– Providing information on contests or campaigns, notifying winners, and sending and providing products and services
-Information on surveys, sending rewards and prizes for survey responses, sending giveaways, analysis of survey results, and planning and development of products and services (statistically processed data may be presented to advertisers and content providers)
– To provide information on events, and to send invitations and tickets
– Sending and providing information on products and services
– Information on products, services, and events entrusted to Yomiuri by advertisers and partner companies, etc., and sending prizes, giveaways, materials, questionnaires, etc.
(2) To communicate with customers
– To respond to inquiries and opinions
– To check the usage status of services for members
– To recommend useful services to customers
(3) To improve and develop contents, services, and advertisements
(4) To distribute advertisements and provide content tailored to your needs
Site browsing history, survey and analysis results may be used to deliver advertisements tailored to your needs and to measure their effectiveness.
(5) To respond to requests from customers
When a customer requests the disclosure, correction, deletion, or restriction or suspension of use of personal data about themselves, we may ask the customer for personal data.
(6) To use for “Joint use” described in Section 5
4. Provision to third parties
Yomiuri may provide your personal data to a third party in any of the following cases.
(1) When it is necessary to fulfill legal obligations.
(2) When we are required to provide your personal data by a public institution.
(3) When it is necessary to protect important interests such as the life, body, health, or property of a person and it is difficult to obtain your consent.
(4) When it is deemed necessary to protect the rights, property, or services of Yomiuri, Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings’ affiliates, content providers, advertisers, or partner companies due to violations of laws, regulations, or the Membership Terms & Conditions of The Japan News Website by you, or obstruction of business, and it is difficult to obtain your consent.
(5) When a customer signs up to purchase a business partner’s service or product, applies to a contest or campaign, responds to a survey, or conducts some other transaction, and the personal data obtained by Yomiuri is provided to the business partner to the extent necessary for the transaction based on your instructions and consent. (In this case, the personal data provided to the business partner will be managed by them).
(6) When providing access data to partners, such as advertising distributors, in order to distribute advertisements, etc. to customers.
5. Joint use
The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings’ affiliates and Yomiuri Shimbun dealers (Yomiuri Centers: YC) may jointly use your personal data about you for the purpose of confirming subscription status, improving service quality, providing service information, marketing and others. Each company will be responsible for the management of such personal data.
(1) Purpose of joint use
– Confirmation of customer’s newspaper subscription status
– To provide information on products and services
– To inform of events
– Sending rewards and premiums
– Analysis of customer requests for the planning and development of products and services
– Confirmation of subscription status in connection with the provision of electronic services
– Providing information on various after-sales services
(2) Items used
Name, gender, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address, and other information about your attributes entered by you during registration and use of the service, as well as information related to service usage history, such as purchase history, point/gift application history, event participation history, survey response information, and website/application access data.
(3) Scope of use
Yomiuri Giants, Chuokoron-shinsha. Inc., Yomiuri Land, The Hochi Shimbun, The Fukushima Minyu Shimbun, Yomiuri Travel Service Co., Ryoko Yomiuri Publication Co., Yomiuri Nippon TV Culture Center, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Joho Kaihatsu Co., Yomiuri IS Inc., Yomiuri Heart Service, Yomiuri Agency Co., Yomiuri Joho Kaihatsu Osaka Co., Osaka Yomiuri Service, Yomisen, Yomiuri Agency Osaka Co., Sports Hochi Seibu Honsha, Yomiuri Seibu IS Co., Yomiuri Seibu Joho Kaihatsu, Yomiuri Advertising Seibu Inc., Yomiuri Shimbun dealers who delivers newspapers to customers.
(4) Management responsibility
Yomiuri and each of the companies with which it shares your personal data will be responsible for the management of your personal data when we jointly use it.
6. Consignment (including out-of-area transfer of personal data)
To the extent necessary to achieve the purpose of use, we may entrust the handling of personal data to a third party (this may include the transfer of personal data to foreign countries including the United States). These third parties will be selected after confirming that they have sufficient security levels for handling personal data, and necessary and appropriate supervision will be provided through contracts and other means.
When entrusting the handling of personal data to a third party in a foreign country, Yomiuri protects it by taking measures such as: confirming that the country has a personal data protection system at an equivalent level to that in Japan or that the third party has an ongoing system equivalent to that of a service operator handling personal data in Japan, or concluding a Standard Contractual Clause based on the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and its legal equivalent in United Kingdom (collectively, “GDPR”) between Yomiuri and the third party.
If you want to know more about the measures we have taken to adequately protect your personal data, please contact us at the contact information provided below, section 12.
Yomiuri has outsourced the management of members and the provision of services for members on The Japan News websites to Piano Japan Co. Piano Japan Co. may use your access data to provide you with recommendations based on your preferences.
7. Prohibition of inference of personal data requiring careful handling
When combining and analyzing personal data, we take care not to infer, or allow a third party to infer, personal data that requires careful handling, such as race, creed, or medical history.
8. Management
We will appoint a person responsible for the management of personal data, and under the guidance of the person responsible for the management of personal data, we will establish internal regulations regarding the protection of personal data, taking into consideration the guidelines set forth by the relevant authorities, and we will introduce appropriate security measures against the risk of leakage, loss, or damage of personal data, and strive to prevent and rectify such risks.
Individual data entered as personal data can only be accessed by authorized people in charge. We will educate all executives and employees on the prevention of using personal data for purposes other than those specified in our internal regulations and on security measures, and strive to raise awareness of personal data protection.
Advertisers or partner companies may conduct questionnaires, giveaways and requests for information, for advertising features or planned features in newspapers or digital services, and obtain, use, and manage personal data. In such cases, Yomiuri will require such entities to manage personal data in a necessary and appropriate manner.
The legal entity and representative responsible for the management of personal data held by Yomiuri (also serving as the person responsible for the management of personal data related to joint use as described in Section 5) is as follows;
The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, 1-7-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo
Toshikazu Yamaguchi, President and Representative Director
9. Customer rights
All customers have the following rights regarding your personal data.
– Right to request disclosure
You have the right to request that Yomiuri disclose your personal data. We may charge a small fee for such disclosure.
– Right to correction
You have the right to request that we correct your personal data.
– Right to erasure
You have the right to request that we erase your personal data under certain conditions.
– Right to restrict use
You have the right, under certain conditions, to request that we restrict the use of your personal data.
– Right to request the suspension of use
You have the right, under certain conditions, to request that we stop using your personal data.
– Right to data portability
You have the right to request that we transfer the data we have collected to another organization or directly to you, under certain conditions.
– Right to object to the handling of data
You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data.
– Right not to be discriminated against if you exercise your rights
We will not discriminate against you in any way, such as by reducing the quality of our services, if you exercise any of the above rights.
10. Compliance with laws and regulations, guidelines set by the government, and other norms
We will comply with laws, regulations, guidelines, and other norms regarding the handling of personal data.
11. Disclaimer
Yomiuri assumes no responsibility for the acquisition, use, or management of personal data by entities operating sites, etc. linked to the Websites. Please refer to the terms and conditions of the linked sites if you register your personal data there.
12. Contact for inquiries
If you or your designated agent would like to request disclosure, correction, deletion, or restriction or suspension of use of personal data collected by Yomiuri, please contact us at:
The Yomiuri Shimbun, The Japan News
100-8055, Japan
1-7-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo
E-mail address: info@japannews.yomiuri.co.jp
[Locations in the EU]
The Yomiuri Shimbun Brussels Bureau (Belgium)
E-mail address: info-europe@japannews.yomiuri.co.jp
[Locations in the U.K.]
The Yomiuri Shimbun London Bureau (United Kingdom)
E-mail address: info-europe@japannews.yomiuri.co.jp
13. Revision of the Privacy Policy
The Policy applies to all persons who use (including access) the Websites. We will review the Policy from time to time and post it on the Websites.
14. Opting out
You may request to opt-out of the Service. The opt-out procedure is as follows. If you reside in California, you may also opt out below (“Do not sell my information”).
(1) Targeted Advertising
Yomiuri and its affiliated advertising and content delivery companies use cookies and other technologies to deliver targeted advertising. Targeted advertising is a service that accumulates access data on when and which websites are viewed by customers for a certain period of time and delivers Internet advertisements based on their interests and preferences.
(i) Targeted advertising based on The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings’ media access data, etc. (We will distribute targeted advertisements from March 28, 2022.)
We use access data collected by the Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings’ affiliates to deliver targeted advertising. Access data that was collected at least two years ago will not be used.
Here is a link to the Websites for opting out of targeted advertising.
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/policy/privacy/optout/(ii) Targeted advertising using the functions of ad management and distribution servers
We deliver targeted advertisements using the functions of the ad management and delivery server of the Websites. In this process, access data such as the date and time of browsing the Website and URLs are collected and analyzed, but access data that has been collected at two years ago will not be used.
We use the services of Google LLC to manage and deliver advertisements. ii) If you wish to disable the delivery of targeted advertisements, please visit the following website.
Google Ads Settings (https://myadcenter.google.com/ )
(iii) Targeted advertising distributed by ad-serving companies
Targeted advertisements by the ad-serving companies listed in the following appendix are distributed. For details on the targeted advertisements of each service provider and how to disable the distribution of advertisements, please refer to each service provider’s website.
Appendix: A list of ad-serving companies distributing targeted advertising
(2) Traffic research
Yomiuri uses the services of the following companies listed in the following appendix for traffic research. This includes not only the Websites but also other websites of the Yomiuri Shimbun Group. You may opt out at your discretion.
Appendix: A list of companies conducting traffic research
(3) Anti-spam measures
The Websites uses the function reCAPTCHA provided by Google as an anti-spam measure. The cookie for this function is an essential cookie for the safe operation of the Websites.
– Google’s Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US )
– Google’s Terms of Service (https://policies.google.com/terms?hl=en-US )
Revised: 22 September 2022
Revised: 23 March 2022