Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Janai School — the website, learning curriculum, cohort programs, live sessions, community features, and 1-on-1 lessons (together, the "Service") — operated by Mana Kiyosawa, doing business as Janai School ("we", "us"). By creating an account or purchasing anything on the Service, you agree to these Terms.

1. Your account

You need an account to use most of the Service. Provide accurate information, keep your login credentials to yourself, and let us know right away at support@janaischool.com if you suspect someone else is using your account. Accounts are personal — they may not be shared, transferred, or sold. You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service.

2. What the Service includes

The Service offers, depending on your plan:

• Free account — access to a limited portion of the curriculum.
• Cohort programs (Janai Core, Janai Plus) — a 12-week cohort with full curriculum access and a progress checkpoint every 4 weeks, followed by 30 days of continued access after the cohort ends.
• 1-on-1 packages — a prepaid weekly private lesson at a fixed time slot (Japan Standard Time), bought in 5, 10, or 20-week packages (no auto-renew), plus full curriculum access while the package is active.
• Alumni subscription — continued curriculum access for former cohort members, billed monthly or annually.

We may add, change, or remove parts of the Service over time. If a change materially reduces what a paid plan includes, we will let you know in advance.

Cohort start dates, end dates, and all access windows — including the 30 days of continued access after a cohort ends and any grace period — are measured in Japan Standard Time (JST). An access period includes the whole of its stated final day (through 23:59 JST), and a 1-on-1 session that starts within the access period is held in full.

3. Payments

All payments are processed by Stripe. Prices are shown in US dollars at the point of purchase. Payment-method fees, if any, are your responsibility.

One-time purchases (Janai Core, Janai Plus, 1-on-1 packages) are charged in full at checkout and do not auto-renew.

Subscriptions(Alumni) renew automatically — monthly plans each month, annual plans each year — anchored to the date and time of your first payment. If a renewal date doesn't exist in a given month (for example, the 30th in February), you are billed on the last day of that month, and billing returns to your original date in months that have it. Your exact renewal date is always visible in your billing portal, reachable from your plan page.

Subscription prices may change over time. A new price applies to new subscriptions right away; for an existing subscription, we will give you notice before a price change affects your renewals, and you may cancel before it takes effect.

If a renewal payment for a subscription (Alumni) fails, Stripe retries it several times and emails you a link to update your payment method. While the payment is outstanding, access is paused, and resumes automatically once payment succeeds. If it cannot be collected, the subscription is canceled. 1-on-1 packages are prepaid one-time and do not auto-renew, so there is no renewal payment to fail.

4. Cancellations and refunds

• Cohort programs(Janai Core, Janai Plus) — full refund if you cancel up to 24 hours before your cohort's start date (the cohort begins 0:00 JST on day one). Within 24 hours of the start, the purchase is non-refundable.
• 1-on-1 packages — a package is prepaid and does not auto-renew. Full refund up to 24 hours before your first session; from then on the package is non-refundable, in whole or in part. An extension (added time) is refundable up to 24 hours before the first session it covers — the first session after your current end date — and non-refundable after that. When a package ends, access stops unless you extend it.
• Alumni subscription — cancel anytime, effective at the end of the current billing period (monthly or annual). Payments already made are not refunded; annual plans remain usable until the end of the paid year.
• Repeat cancellations — refunds are offered in good faith. We may decline enrollment, a booking, or a refund from anyone who repeatedly cancels and re-purchases in a way that abuses this policy.

Nothing in this section limits any rights you have under applicable mandatory consumer-protection law.

5. 1-on-1 sessions

Weekly 1-on-1 sessions run at your reserved slot in Japan Standard Time (JST). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, so your JST time never changes — if your region observes DST, your local time for the session shifts accordingly. You can change your weekly slot from your plan page, subject to availability; changes take effect the following Monday (JST).

If you miss a session— including one you can't join because of your own device, internet connection, or Zoom access — it does not carry over and is not refunded or credited. Sessions cannot be rescheduled to a different time within the week.

If we cancel a session, we add that week to the end of your package, so your paid time extends by one session. Canceled sessions are not otherwise rescheduled.

1-on-1 lessons are a personal service. We may decline to start or continue 1-on-1 lessons at our discretion; if we stop them mid-package, we refund the unused remainder of that package pro rata.

6. Your content

You keep ownership of anything you submit to the Service (questions, practice input, and similar). You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use it to operate and improve the Service. Questions you submit to the community may be answered publicly in the FAQ — without your name or any identifying details.

7. Our content

The curriculum, lessons, videos, practice materials, and everything else we provide are owned by us or our licensors. You may use them for your own personal learning only. Copying, redistributing, republishing, selling, or sharing access to the materials is not allowed without our prior written permission.

8. Acceptable use

When using the Service, you must not:

• break the law or infringe anyone's rights;
• share, resell, or let others use your account or the materials;
• harass other students or disrupt the community or live sessions;
• impersonate others or misrepresent who you are;
• advertise, solicit, or use the community for dating or romantic purposes;
• interfere with the operation of the Service, attempt unauthorized access, or scrape or bulk-download content.

If you violate these Terms, we may suspend or terminate your account. Where the violation is serious or repeated, no refund is given for remaining paid time. This applies to every plan, including 1-on-1 packages — a termination for cause under this section is not refunded, despite the pro-rata refund we would otherwise give under Section 5.

9. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is". Learning outcomes vary from person to person, and we don't guarantee any particular result or proficiency level. We also can't guarantee the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free — it depends on third-party platforms (hosting, payments, video, scheduling) whose outages are outside our control.

We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, fires, epidemics, war, civil unrest, labor disputes, power or network failures, cyberattacks, or acts of government. While such an event continues, we may suspend the affected part of the Service and pause its billing, or end the affected plan and refund the unused portion pro rata (or issue an equivalent credit). If such an event prevents us from delivering a paid part of the Service for an extended period, we will work out a fair remedy — such as an extension or credit — but we are not liable for further damages.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the Service, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose. This limitation does not apply to damages caused by our willful misconduct or gross negligence, or where liability cannot be limited under applicable law.

11. Ending your account

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time from the account menu (Manage account → Security → Delete account). Before deleting, cancel any active subscription yourself from your plan page. Your data is handled as described in our Privacy Policy.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes we will give notice on the Service or by email before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Japan. Any dispute arising from the Service will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Tokyo District Court as the court of first instance, except where mandatory consumer-protection rules of your place of residence provide otherwise.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms: support@janaischool.com or via the contact page. Legal disclosures required under Japanese law are on the Commercial Disclosure page.