Standard General Conditions of Travel Agency Business

※ The Standard General Conditions of Travel Agency Business translated into English is not the original text. It is the Standard General Conditions of Travel Agency Business in Japanese that have legal force, and translations are only reference material to assist in their understanding. No responsibility can be accepted for any problems arising from the use of the Standard General Conditions of Travel Agency Business translated into English. For legal issues, please refer to the Standard General Conditions of Travel Agency Business in Japanese (Notification No. 1593 of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, 16 December 2004).

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Notification No. 1593:
The Standard General Conditions of Travel Agency Business (Ministry of Transport Notification No. 790 of December 19, 1995) of Article 12-3 of the Travel Agency Law (Act No. 239 of 1952) is hereby amended in its entirety and set out in the following public notice.

December 16, 2004

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Kazuo Kitagawa
Last revision: March 2nd, 2020 Tourism Agency and Consumer Affairs Agency Notification No. 1 (applicable from 1 April 2002).
Standard General Conditions of Travel Agency Business
[Originally published in vertical format].
Travel Arrangements Contract Section
Chapter 1 General provisions
(Scope of application)
Article 1The travel arrangements contract concluded by our company with the traveler shall be governed by these General Terms and Conditions. Matters not covered by these General Terms and Conditions shall be governed by law or generally established practice.
2If our company has made a special agreement in writing to the extent that it does not contravene laws and regulations and is not detrimental to the traveler, the special agreement shall prevail notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
(Definition of terms)
Article 2In these General Terms and Conditions, "Travel Arrangements Contract" means a contract whereby our company undertakes, on behalf of the traveler, to arrange for the traveler to receive transport, accommodation and other travel-related services (hereinafter referred to as “Travel Services”) provided by transport and accommodation agencies, etc. by acting as an agent, intermediary or agency on the traveler's behalf.
2In these General Terms and Conditions, "domestic travel" means travel within Japan only, and "overseas travel" means travel other than domestic travel.
3In these General Terms and Conditions, the term "travel expenses" means the costs paid by our company to the fare, accommodation charges and other transport and accommodation agencies for arranging the trip services, as well as our company’s prescribed trip handling fees (excluding change procedure fees and cancellation procedure fees).
4In this section, “Correspondence Contract” means a travel arrangements contract concluded with a credit card member of a credit card company (hereinafter referred to as "Partner Company") with which our company is affiliated upon receiving an application by telephone, mail, facsimile, Internet or other means of communication, whereby the traveler agrees in advance to settle the claims or obligations pertaining to the tour fee, etc. based on the travel arrangements contract held by our company to the traveler, in accordance with the credit card member agreement of the affiliated company separately provided for after the date on which such claims or obligations are to be performed.
5In these General Terms and Conditions, "Date of card use" means the date on which the traveler or our company should fulfill the payment or refund obligation for the trip price, etc. under the travel arrangements contract.
(Termination of arrangement obligations)
Article 3When our company has made arrangements for travel services with the due care of a prudent manager, the performance of our company's obligations based on the travel arrangements contract will be terminated. Therefore, even if our company is unable to conclude a contract for the provision of travel services with a transport or accommodation provider, for reasons such as full capacity, closure or unsuitable conditions, the traveler must pay our company's prescribed travel service handling fee (hereinafter referred to as the "handling fee") when our company has fulfilled its obligations. In the event that a correspondence contract is concluded, the card utilization date shall be the date on which our company notifies the traveler that it was unable to conclude a contract with the transport or accommodation provider to provide travel services.
(Arrangements agent)
Article 4In the performance of the travel arrangements contract, our company may have other tour operators, persons who make arrangements on its behalf, or other assistants, either within or outside Japan, make all or part of the arrangements on its behalf.
Chapter 2 Formation of Contract
(Application for a contract)
Article 5A traveler who wishes to conclude a travel arrangements contract with our company shall fill in the prescribed items on our company's prescribed application form and submit it to our company together with an application fee in the amount separately determined by our company.
2Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, a traveler who wishes to conclude a correspondence contract with our company must notify our company of his/her membership number and the details of the travel services he/she wishes to request.
3The application fee in Paragraph 1 shall be treated as part of the travel fee, cancellation fee, and other money to be paid by the traveler to our company.
(Refusal to conclude a contract)
Article 6Our company may refuse to conclude a travel arrangements contract in the following cases:
(i) When a correspondence contract is to be concluded and the traveler is unable to settle part or all of the obligations relating to the trip price etc. in accordance with the cardholder agreement of the partner company, e.g. because the credit card held by the traveler is invalid.
(ii) If the traveler is deemed to be a member of an organized crime group, an associate member of an organized crime group, a person involved in a gang, a gang-related company or a corporate extortionist or other anti-social forces.
(iii) If the traveler engages in violent or unreasonable demands, uses threatening language or violence in connection with a transaction, or commits any other similar act against our company.
(iv) If the traveler spreads rumors, uses falsehoods or force to damage our company's reputation or obstruct our company's business, or commits any other similar act.
(v) When there are other business reasons for our company to do so.
(Time of conclusion of the contract)
Article 7The travel arrangements contract shall be concluded when our company has accepted the conclusion of the contract and received the application fee in Article 5, Paragraph 1.
2Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the communication contract shall be deemed to have been concluded when the traveler is notified that our company has accepted the application set forth in Article 5, Paragraph 2.
(Special provisions on contract formation)
Article 8Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 5, Paragraph 1, our company may, by a special written agreement, conclude a travel arrangements contract only by accepting the conclusion of the contract without receiving payment of the application fee.
2In the case of the preceding paragraph, the time of conclusion of the travel arrangements contract shall be clarified in the document referred to in the preceding paragraph.
(Special provisions for boarding and lodging tickets, etc.)
Article 9Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 5, Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 1 of the preceding article, our company may accept oral applications for travel arrangements contracts solely for the purpose of arranging transport or accommodation services, where a document indicating the right to receive such services in exchange for the tour price is delivered.
2In the case of the preceding paragraph, the travel arrangements contract shall be concluded when our company accepts the conclusion of the contract.
(Contract Document)
Article 10Promptly after the conclusion of the travel arrangements contract, our company shall provide the traveler with a document (hereinafter referred to as the "Contract Document") describing the itinerary, the contents of the tour services, the tour price and other tour conditions and our company's responsibilities. However, when our company delivers a document indicating the right to receive tickets, accommodation vouchers and other travel services for all travel services arranged by our company, the contract document concerned may not be delivered.
2If the contract document referred to in the main clause of the preceding paragraph has been issued, the scope of the travel services that our company is obliged to arrange under the travel arrangements contract shall be as stated in the contract document concerned.
(Methods of using information and communication technology)
Article 11When our company, with the prior consent of the traveler, has provided the matters to be stated in said document by means of information and communication technology (hereinafter referred to as “items mentioned" in this article), instead of delivering a document or a contractual document stating the itinerary, contents of travel services, trip price and other travel conditions and our company's responsibilities, which is delivered to the traveler when the travel arrangements contract is concluded, our company shall confirm that the matters have been recorded in a file in the communication device used by the traveler.
2In the case of the preceding paragraph, if the communication device used by the traveler is not equipped with a file for recording the entries, our company will record the entries in a file provided on the communication device used by our company (limited to those exclusively used by the traveler concerned) and confirm that the traveler has viewed the entries.
Chapter 3 Modification and termination of the contract
(Changes of contractual terms)
Article 12The traveler may request our company to change the itinerary, the contents of the travel services and other details of the travel arrangements contract. In this case, our company will comply with the traveler's request as much as possible.
2In the event that the contents of the travel arrangements contract are changed at the request of the traveler under the preceding paragraph, the traveler shall bear the cancellation fees, penalty charges and other costs for changing the arrangements payable to the transport and accommodation agencies when canceling the arrangements already completed, and shall also pay to our company the change procedure fees prescribed by our company. Any increase or decrease in the price of the trip resulting from changes in the content of the relevant travel arrangements contract shall belong to the traveler.
(Voluntary cancellation by the traveler)
Article 13The traveler may cancel the travel arrangements contract in whole or in part at any time.
2If the travel arrangements contract is canceled in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the traveler shall not only bear the cancellation fee, penalty fee and other expenses already paid or to be paid to the transport and accommodation agency, etc., in consideration of the travel services already provided by the traveler or not yet provided, but shall also pay the cancellation processing fee and handling charges prescribed by our company and which our company should have obtained.
(Cancellation for reasons attributable to the traveler)
Article 14Our company may cancel the travel arrangements contract in the following cases:
(i) When the traveler does not pay the travel fee by the prescribed date.
(ii) When a correspondence contract has been concluded and the traveler is unable to settle part or all of the obligations relating to the trip price etc. in accordance with the cardholder agreement of the partner company, e.g. because the credit card held by the traveler becomes invalid.
(iii) If it is found that the traveler falls into any of items 2 to 4 of Article 6.
2If the travel arrangements contract is canceled in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the traveler shall not only bear the cancellation fee, penalty fee and other costs already paid or to be paid to the transport, accommodation and other services which have not yet been provided, but shall also pay to our company the cancellation processing fee and handling charges prescribed our company.
(Cancellation for reasons attributable to our company)
Article 15The traveler may cancel the travel arrangements contract if it becomes impossible to arrange the travel services for reasons attributable to our company.
2If the travel arrangements contract is canceled in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, our company shall refund to the traveler the trip fee already received, except for expenses already paid or to be paid to the transport or accommodation agency as compensation for the trip services already provided to the traveler.
3The provisions of the preceding paragraph do not prevent the traveler from claiming compensation from our company.
Chapter 4 Travel Fee
(Travel fee)
Article 16The traveler must pay our company the trip price by the period specified by our company prior to the commencement of the trip.
2When a correspondence contract has been concluded, our company will receive payment of the travel fee using the card of the affiliated company without the traveler's signature on the prescribed slip. In this case, the card utilization date shall be the date when our company notifies the traveler of the confirmed travel services.
3Our company reserves the right to change the price of the trip in the event of a change in the price of the trip due to revised fares and charges of transport and accommodation services, fluctuations in exchange rates or other reasons prior to the commencement of the trip.
4In the case of the preceding paragraph, any increase or decrease in the trip price shall belong to the traveler.
5If our company has concluded a correspondence contract with a traveler and the traveler incurs expenses, etc. to be borne by the traveler in accordance with the provisions of Chapters 3 or 4, our company will accept payment of such expenses, etc. without the traveler's signature on the prescribed slip by card of the partner company. In this case, the card utilization date shall be the date on which our company notifies the traveler of the amount of expenses etc. to be paid by the traveler to our company or the amount to be reimbursed by our company to the traveler. However, if our company cancels the travel arrangements contract pursuant to Article 14(1)(ii), the traveler must pay the costs, etc. payable by the traveler to our company by the date specified by our company and by the payment method specified by our company.
(Settlement of travel costs)
Article 17In the event of a discrepancy between the amount already received as the price of the trip and the costs paid to the transport and accommodation organizations for arranging the trip services by our company, which should be borne by the traveler, and the handling fee (hereinafter referred to as “Settlement of travel costs”), our company shall settle the travel costs promptly after the end of the trip, in accordance with the following paragraph and paragraph 3.
2If the settlement of travel costs exceeds the amount already received as the trip price, the traveler must pay the difference to our company.
3If the settlement of travel costs is less than the amount already collected for the trip, our company shall refund the difference to the traveler.
Chapter 5 Group and party arrangements
Article 18Our company shall apply the provisions of this Chapter to the conclusion of a travel arrangements contract applied for by several travelers traveling on the same itinerary at the same time, who have appointed their responsible representatives (hereinafter referred to as “Contract Representative”).
(Contract Representative)
Article 19Unless a special agreement has been concluded, our company shall regard the contract representative as having the right to represent all the travelers comprising the group/party (hereinafter referred to as 'Constituents') in concluding the travel arrangements contract, and the transactions relating to the travel services for the group/party in question and the services referred to in Article 22.1 shall be carried out with the contract representative.
2The contract representative must submit to our company a list of the members of the party or inform our company of the number of persons by the date specified by our company.
3Our company shall not be liable for any debts or obligations that the contract representative has now incurred or can be expected to incur in the future towards the constituents.
4If the contract representative does not accompany the group/party, our company shall deem a member previously appointed by the contract representative to be the contract representative after the commencement of the trip.
(Special provisions for the conclusion of contracts)
Article 20When concluding a travel arrangements contract with the contract representative, our company may, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 5(1), accept the conclusion of the travel arrangements contract without receiving payment of the application fee.
2If our company concludes a travel arrangements contract without receiving payment of the application fee in accordance with the preceding paragraph, our company shall deliver a document to that effect to the contract representative, and the travel arrangements contract shall be concluded when our company delivers said document.
(Change of Constituents)
Article 21If our company receives a request from the contract representative to change the members, our company will comply with the request as far as possible.
2Any increase or decrease in the travel costs caused by the change in the preceding paragraph and the expenses required for such change shall belong to the constituents.
(Escorting services)
Article 22Our company may, at the request of the contract representative, accompany the group/party and provide escorting services.
2As a rule, the escorting services provided by the tour conductor shall be those necessary to carry out group/party activities on the predetermined itinerary.
3As a rule, the hours during which tour conductors provide escorting services are from 8.00 a.m. to 20.00 p.m.
4When our company provides escort services, the contract representative must pay the prescribed escort service fee to our company.
Chapter 6 Responsibilities
(Our responsibilities)
Article 23If, in the performance of the travel arrangements contract, our company or a person on whose behalf our company has made arrangements in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 (hereinafter referred to as “Arrangements Agent”) causes damage to the traveler, either intentionally or through negligence, our company shall be liable to compensate for such damage. However, this shall only apply if our company is notified of the damage within two years from the day following the occurrence of the damage.
2If the traveler suffers damage as a result of a natural disaster, war, riot, suspension of the provision of travel services by transport and accommodation services, orders by government authorities or other reasons beyond the control of our company or its arrangements agent, our company shall not be liable to compensate for such damage, except in the case of the preceding paragraph.
3Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article, our company shall compensate up to JPY 150,000 per traveler (except in the case of intentional or grievous fault on the part of our company) for any damage to baggage as per paragraph 1 of this Article, provided that our company is notified of the damage within 14 days in the case of domestic travel and within 21 days in the case of overseas travel, starting from the day after the damage occurred.
(Traveler's responsibilities)
Article 24If our company suffers damage due to the traveler's intention or negligence, the said traveler must compensate our company for the damage.
2When concluding a travel arrangements contract, the traveler must make use of the information provided by our company and endeavor to understand the rights and obligations of the traveler and other details of the travel arrangements contract.
3If, after the commencement of the trip, the traveler recognises that, in order to ensure the smooth receipt of the travel services described in the contract document, travel services that differ from those described in the contract document have been provided, the traveler must promptly inform our company, our company's arrangements agent or the relevant travel service provider at the place of travel.
Chapter 7 Business Security Deposit
(if not a guaranteed member of a travel agents' association)
(Business security deposit)
Article 25A traveler or constituent who has concluded a travel arrangement contract with our company may be reimbursed from the business security deposit deposited by our company under Article 7(1) of the Travel Services Act in respect of claims arising from such transactions.
2The names and locations of the depositories where the company has deposited its business security deposit are as follows.
(i) Name: Kyoto District Legal Affairs Bureau
(ii) Location: 197 Uesasu-cho, Arakamiuchi-dori Kawara-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto City
Travel Consultation Contract Section
(Scope of application)
Article 1The travel consultation contract concluded by our company with the traveler is subject to the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions. Matters not covered by these General Terms and Conditions shall be governed by law or generally established practice.
2If our company has made a special agreement in writing to the extent that it does not contravene any law or regulation and is not prejudicial to the traveler, the special agreement shall prevail notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
(Definition of travel consultation contract)
Article 2In these General Terms and Conditions, "travel consultation contract" means a contract whereby our company undertakes to perform the following services on behalf of the traveler on the condition that our company receives a travel service handling fee for the consultation (hereinafter referred to as "consultation fee").
(i) Advice to help travelers plan their trips.
(ii) Preparation of travel plans.
(iii) Estimate of the costs of travel.
(iv) Provision of information on travel destinations and transport and accommodation facilities.
(v) Provision of other advice and information necessary for travel.
(Formation of contract)
Article 3Travelers who wish to enter a travel consultation contract with our company must submit a completed application form to our company with the prescribed details.
2The travel consultation contract shall be concluded when our company accepts the conclusion of the contract and accepts the application form referred to in the preceding paragraph.
3Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding two paragraphs, our company may accept applications for travel consultation contracts by telephone, mail, facsimile, internet or other means of communication without receiving an application form. In this case, the travel consultation contract shall be concluded when our company accepts the conclusion of the contract.
4Our company may refuse to conclude a travel consultation contract in the following cases.
(i) If the content of the traveler's consultation is contrary to public order and morals or is likely to violate the laws and regulations in force in the place of travel.
(ii) If the traveler is deemed to be a member of an organized crime group, an associate member of an organized crime group, a person involved in a gang, a gang-related company or a corporate extortionist or other anti-social forces.
(iii) If the traveler engages in violent or unreasonable demands, uses threatening language or violence in connection with the transaction, or any other similar act against our company.
(iv) If the traveler spreads rumors, uses falsehoods or force to damage our company's reputation or obstruct our company's business, or commits any other similar act.
(v) When there are other business reasons for our company to do so.
(Consultation fees)
Article 4When our company has performed the services listed in Article 2, the traveler shall pay our company the consultation fee prescribed by our company by the date specified by our company.
(Cancellation of contract)
Article 5Our company may cancel the travel consultation contract if it is found that the traveler falls into any of items 2 to 4 of paragraph 4 of Article 3.
(Our responsibilities)
Article 6Our company shall be liable to compensate the traveler for any damage caused intentionally or negligently by our company in the performance of the travel consultation contract. However, this only applies if our company is notified within six months from the day after the damage occurred.
2Our company does not guarantee that it will actually be able to make arrangements for the transport, accommodation, etc. described in the travel plans prepared by our company. Therefore, our company shall not be liable if it is unable to conclude a contract with a transport or accommodation agency to provide transport, accommodation or other services related to the trip provided by that agency due to reasons such as full capacity.

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