Terms of Service

Article 1 (Application)

1. These Terms shall apply to all relationships related to the use of the Service between the User and our school.
2. Our school may establish rules and other provisions (hereinafter referred to as "Individual Provisions") in addition to these Terms regarding the Service. These Individual Provisions, regardless of their name, shall form part of these Terms.
3. If the provisions of these Terms conflict with the Individual Provisions of the preceding paragraph, the Individual Provisions shall prevail unless otherwise specified in the Individual Provisions.

Article 2 (User Registration)

1. A person seeking a paid plan must first complete the required free consultation through the official LINE channel and then formally apply through the non-public Google Form A sent individually by our school. A public form, LINE consultation message, or email alone is not a formal application.
2. We verify the applicant's name, postal address, telephone number, email address, learner information, age and guardian information, requested plan, service scope, and other necessary matters and review whether to accept the learner. For a learner under 18, the parent or legal guardian is the applicant, prospective contracting party, and payer, while the minor is the learner.
3. We notify the applicant of the review result. Acceptance only permits the applicant to proceed to confirmed conditions and Stripe payment and does not itself form a paid contract.
4. The applicant may withdraw the application by emailing info@ada-itschool.com at any time before successful Stripe credit-card payment. If an application is rejected or withdrawn, no charge or service is provided, no payment link is sent, and any link already issued is disabled.
5. Our school may not approve an application for user registration if it determines that the applicant has any of the following reasons, and shall have no obligation to disclose the reasons for such decision.
   • If false information is provided in the registration application
   • If the application is from a person who has previously violated these Terms
   • If our school determines that the applicant is or is related to antisocial forces
   • If our school determines that user registration is not appropriate for other reasons

Article 3 (Use by Minors)

1. For a learner under 18, a parent or legal guardian must complete the contract and payment procedures.
2. We may share with that guardian contract and billing information, whether meetings occurred, learning themes, submission status, progress, goals, and continuity warnings.
3. Without separate consent or a legal basis, we will not routinely share chat transcripts, full source code, credentials, private family, school, or friendship discussions, sensitive career details, or third-party information.
4. For a learner aged 18 or older, information will not be shared with a parent or other person without the learner's specific consent or another lawful basis.

Article 3-2 (Slack and Other External Services)

1. We may use Slack or another external service for course communications, questions, submissions, and feedback. Slack is available only to learners aged 16 or older. We verify the learner's date of birth or age before invitation. A learner under 16 will not be invited to Slack and will instead receive email or another individually specified alternative.
2. External services are subject to their providers' terms, outages, feature changes, service plans, and our selected settings. Under Slack's current free-plan rules, eligible data from the most recent 90 days is available for viewing and search; older data may be unavailable or deleted under the selected retention settings.
3. The retention settings, covered data, use, and required safeguards we adopt will be provided in the individual conditions or service instructions before use. Until we verify the actual settings, provider, permissions, overseas processing, and other required matters, we will not invite a learner to Slack or enter learner personal data into Slack.
4. Users must not assume that external-service history will remain available indefinitely and should also save important assignments, work product, and feedback on their own device or in the authoritative storage location designated by us.
5. If a minor uses Slack, the User must follow the safety rules we separately provide regarding visibility between learners, direct messages, external invitations, public links, file sharing, and similar functions. If we cannot verify the required separation between learners and permission controls, that minor will not use Slack.

Article 4 (Usage Fees and Payment Methods)

1. After acceptance, we deliver confirmed conditions in a storable form stating the service provider and service name; contracting party and learner; plan and services; initial and later prices; absence of paid add-on options; separate third-party costs; payment method and timing; one-month term; service start; exact renewal date and time in JST; cancellation deadline, channel, receipt standard, and effect; refund terms; any applicable statutory system, period, starting point, notice method, and destination; and applicable policy versions. The applicant receives a correction opportunity and must expressly consent through Form B or another storable method before a Stripe credit-card payment link is sent.
2. The paid contract is formed only when Stripe confirms successful credit-card payment. A failed or incomplete payment, issuing or opening a payment link, passing review, acceptance, delivery of confirmed conditions, or consent through Form B does not form the paid contract. Service starts at the date and time stated in the confirmed conditions.
3. The only customer payment method is credit-card payment processed by Stripe. Card data is not collected through Google Forms, LINE, email, or Slack. There are no paid add-on options; the only paid plans are Self-Study Chat and Full Support. Books, examinations, communications, devices, and external or cloud services are separate costs paid by the User to third parties when needed.
4. For each one-month contract term, chat support is limited to 20 threads under the Self-Study Chat Plan and 40 threads under the Full Support Plan, with a maximum of three exchanges per topic. We target an initial reply within 24 hours after receipt, but do not guarantee an immediate reply or complete resolution or answer within that period.
5. The contract term is one month. Unless a valid cancellation notice reaches us before the exact next renewal date and time stated in the individual conditions (JST), the contract automatically renews for successive one-month terms. There is no limit on the number of renewals.
6. If the User is late in paying usage fees, they shall pay delay damages at an annual rate of 14.6%.
7. Fees for a paid term are not prorated solely because the User stops using the Service, except where required by law or where our school is responsible for non-performance.

Article 5 (Intellectual Property)

1. Copyright and other intellectual-property rights in portions of materials, text, images, video, audio, software, and other works originally created by our school belong to our school or another legitimate rights holder. We do not claim copyright in general ideas, learning methods, facts, or advice as such.
2. Except for quotation and other uses permitted by copyright law, the User shall not reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly transmit, transfer, lend, translate, or otherwise use content belonging to our school or a third party beyond the scope necessary for the Service.
3. If the User violates the preceding paragraph, our school may take legal action, including claims for damages against such User.

Article 5-2 (Rights in Learner Work Product)

1. Copyright in original portions of source code, applications, portfolios, submissions, and other work product created by the User belongs to the User.
2. Pre-existing works belonging to our school or a third party, open-source software, images, audio, fonts, other materials, trademarks, and other rights incorporated into work product remain with their respective rights holders and are subject to their applicable terms and licenses.
3. If copyrightable sample code or a revision example created by our school is incorporated into the User's work product, we grant the User a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, modify, and publish it as reasonably necessary for that work product, subject to third-party rights and any separately stated terms. We do not claim copyright in ideas, advice, or statements of fact as such.
4. The User may use the work product for employment, education, freelance work, or publication only to the extent this does not infringe third-party rights, confidentiality duties, personal data, image rights, or applicable licenses.
5. Before using learner work product in advertising, promotion, or portfolio examples, we obtain separate prior consent identifying the work, media, purpose, displayed name, and use period. Withdrawal applies to future new uses; we will separately explain the treatment of already issued materials that cannot legally or technically be removed.

Article 6 (Prohibitions)

Users shall not engage in the following acts when using the Service.

1. Acts that violate laws or public order and morals
2. Acts related to criminal activities
3. Acts that destroy or interfere with the function of servers or networks of our school, other users of the Service, or third parties
4. Acts that may interfere with the operation of our school's Service
5. Acts of collecting or accumulating personal information of other users
6. Acts of unauthorized access or attempts thereof
7. Acts of impersonating another user
8. Acts of providing benefits directly or indirectly to antisocial forces in relation to our school's Service
9. Acts that infringe on intellectual property, image rights, privacy, honor, or other rights or interests of our school, other users of the Service, or third parties
10. Acts of providing, disclosing, redistributing, reproducing, or selling lesson content, materials, etc. to third parties
11. Acts of recording or filming lessons (except when permitted by our school)
12. Acts of harassment toward our school's instructors
13. Acts that damage the credit or reputation of our school
14. Acts of soliciting users for competing services
15. Other acts that our school deems inappropriate

Article 7 (Service Suspension)

1. Our school may suspend or interrupt the provision of all or part of the Service without prior notice to the User if it determines that any of the following reasons exist.
   • When performing maintenance, inspection, or update of the computer system of the Service
   • When it is difficult to provide the Service due to earthquakes, lightning, fire, power outages, natural disasters, epidemics, wars, riots, terrorist acts, or other force majeure circumstances
   • When computers or communication lines stop due to accidents
   • When our school determines that it is difficult to provide the Service for other reasons
2. Where suspension attributable to our school materially prevents performance, our school will provide an appropriate substitute, extension, or refund. Liability is determined under Article 10 and applicable law.

Article 7-2 (Advertising)

This website may display advertisements to help provide free content and support operating costs.

1. Our school may display third-party advertisements or affiliate advertisements, including Google AdSense and A8.net, on this website.
2. The content of advertisements is determined by advertisers and advertising service providers. Our school is not responsible for the content of advertisements, linked products or services, or transactions with advertisers.
3. Advertising service providers may use cookies, advertising identifiers, tracking images, and similar technologies for ad delivery, ad performance measurement, and personalized advertising. Please see our Privacy Policy for details.
4. If you find an inappropriate advertisement, you may contact us and we will consider appropriate action. However, primary inquiries about advertisement content should be directed to each advertiser or advertising service provider.

Article 8 (Cancellation)

1. The controlling cancellation channel is email to info@ada-itschool.com. Receipt by our email server, in JST, controls the cancellation time.
2. A request received before the exact renewal date and time in the individual conditions stops the next renewal and takes effect at the end of the current paid term. A Stripe customer portal, if provided and operationally verified, is supplemental; email remains available.
3. We will send an acknowledgment. If it does not arrive, the User should use the alternate contact method stated in the contract-formation notice.
4. No penalties or cancellation fees are charged upon withdrawal.
5. Even after cancellation, the obligation to pay usage fees already incurred shall not be extinguished.
6. If a timely cancellation could not be stopped operationally and an erroneous renewal charge occurs, that charge will be fully refunded and future billing will be stopped.
7. For an ordinary cancellation, we remove the User from Slack or otherwise stop access at the contract end date and time. Stopping access does not immediately delete Slack posts or files; their retention and deletion follow our selected retention settings, our available permissions, and Slack's features.

Article 9 (Usage Restriction and Registration Deletion)

Our school may restrict the use of all or part of the Service or delete the User's registration without prior notice if the User meets any of the following conditions. If a breach, suspected data leak, security incident, or other urgent protective measure requires it, we may stop access to Slack or another external service before the ordinary contract end date and time.

1. If they violate any provision of these Terms
2. If registration information is found to contain false information
3. If there is non-fulfillment of payment obligations
4. If they do not respond to communications from our school for more than 30 days
5. If they have not used the Service for more than 1 year since the last use
6. If they are found to be an antisocial force
7. If our school determines that use of the Service is not appropriate for other reasons

Article 10 (Damages)

1. If the User causes damage to our school due to a violation of these Terms or fraudulent or illegal acts, our school may claim damages from such User.
2. Where damage is attributable to our school, our school is liable for ordinary and direct loss. Only property loss caused by our school's slight negligence is capped at the total fees paid by that User during the preceding 12 months.
3. The cap does not apply to intent or gross negligence, death or bodily injury, liability that cannot legally be limited, or performance remedies—such as a substitute, extension, or refund—required to fulfill the original service obligation.

Article 11 (Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability)

1. Our school does not warrant, expressly or impliedly, that the Service is free from factual or legal defects (including defects in safety, reliability, accuracy, completeness, effectiveness, fitness for a particular purpose, security, errors or bugs, infringement of rights, etc.).
2. Our school does not guarantee employment, admission, certification, income, or any other outcome. This outcome disclaimer does not waive our duty to provide the agreed Service or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
3. Our school shall not intervene in disputes arising between Users or between a User and a third party.

Article 12 (Changes to Service Content)

1. When changing the Service, our school will notify Users of the content, scope, reason, and effective date by an appropriate method.
2. A material adverse change requiring consent under applicable law will not apply until the User expressly consents. Continued use will not substitute for express consent where the law requires consent.
3. If a material reduction prevents agreed performance, our school will obtain consent or provide a reasonable substitute, extension, or refund. If the Service ends, reasonable advance notice and a refund for the unused paid portion will be provided.

Article 13 (Changes to Terms of Service)

1. Our school may amend these Terms only where permitted by applicable law and where the amendment is reasonable in light of its necessity, suitability, and impact on Users.
2. We will notify Users of the amendment, affected scope, and effective date by email, website notice, or another appropriate method before it takes effect.
3. A material adverse amendment requiring consent will not apply until the User expressly consents. Continued use will not substitute for express consent where the law requires consent.
4. The version accepted by each User, the acceptance record, contract-formation record, price, renewal conditions, cancellation record, and notices will be preserved. Amendments do not retroactively change a paid term already formed unless legally permitted and agreed.

Article 14 (Handling of Personal Data)

Our school will appropriately handle personal data obtained through the use of the Service in accordance with our "Privacy Policy".

Article 15 (Notifications and Communications)

Notifications or communications will be sent to the registered contact information by email or another method stated in the individual conditions. For a cancellation request, receipt by our email server at info@ada-itschool.com, measured in JST, controls. Other notices take effect in accordance with applicable law and their stated terms, not merely because they were transmitted.

Article 16 (Prohibition of Assignment of Rights and Obligations)

The User shall not assign or pledge as security their position in the usage contract or rights or obligations based on these Terms to a third party without the prior written consent of our school.

Article 17 (Severability)

Even if any provision of these Terms or part thereof is deemed invalid or unenforceable under the Consumer Contract Act or other laws, the remaining provisions of these Terms and the remaining part of the provision deemed partially invalid or unenforceable shall continue in full force and effect.

Article 18 (Governing Law and Jurisdiction)

1. The interpretation of these Terms shall be governed by the laws of Japan.
2. To the extent permitted by law, a Japanese court having jurisdiction over the operator's address shall be the agreed court of first instance for disputes related to the Service.