Legal
Affiliate Disclosure
Japan Wander Bites earns a commission from some of the links in its articles. This page explains exactly how that works.
Last updated
The short version
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you book a room, buy a rail pass, or order a product after following one, the merchant may pay us a commission. You pay exactly the same price either way. Articles that contain affiliate links carry a line saying so.
How affiliate links work
An affiliate link carries a tag telling the merchant that the visit came from us. If a booking or purchase follows within the tracking window the merchant sets, they pay us a percentage of the sale. The commission comes out of the merchant’s margin, never out of your pocket, and it does not change the price, the availability, or the terms you are offered.
Programmes we take part in
We work with affiliate programmes run by travel booking services, retailers, and the affiliate networks that represent them. Which programmes are active changes over time as applications are approved or partnerships end, so we state our position here rather than listing every partner inside individual articles. Where a programme requires specific wording — Amazon Associates, for example — that wording appears in the articles concerned.
What a commission does not buy
We only write about places we have actually visited, and that rule predates the decision to monetise the site. A commission does not buy a mention, a position in a list, or a kind word. If somewhere disappointed us, we say so. Affiliate links are added after an article is written, never the other way round, and no merchant sees our articles before publication.
Why you see disclosure notices
Two sets of rules apply to us. In Japan, a designation under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations has, since 1 October 2023, regulated advertising that consumers cannot readily identify as coming from a business — so-called stealth marketing. Affiliate recommendations can fall within that scope, so we state the relationship plainly. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission requires any material connection between a reviewer and a seller to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. That is why we disclose near the top of every article carrying affiliate links, and again here.
Display advertising
If we add a display advertising network later, the ads will be labelled as advertising and that network’s data practices will be described in our privacy policy before the first ad appears.
Questions
If anything on this page is unclear, or you find an article that should be disclosing something and is not, email the address below and tell us. We would rather fix it than leave you wondering.