Data Protection Policy

ASIJ Data Protection and Privacy Policy

Our commitment to the privacy of your personal information

ASIJ is committed to safeguarding all personal information that we collect and store. We handle this personal information with the utmost care.

We ask all parents, alumni, employees, and other users of ASIJ services to read and agree to the ASIJ data privacy policy. 

We abide by the best practices and principles laid out in the Amended Act on the Protection of Personal Information (Personal Information Protection Commission, Japan) and any other applicable laws, regulations, or guidelines.

Collection and retention of personal information

ASIJ collects, stores, manages and processes a wide variety of personal information. This includes information about children. We collect information from prospective employees and students during application processes. We collect personal information from alumni and donors, and from organizations who work with ASIJ or who employ our community members. This information is collected electronically and on paper forms, and stored in various electronic databases. We retain information on our students and their families, our alumni and employees for as long as it is relevant for the purposes of school operations. We delete information that is unneeded (such as data stored about former prospective students or their families) after three years. Any time we begin collecting personal information from a new data subject, we will seek consent from the identifiable person or their guardian.
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Utilization of personal information

Personal information is information relating to a living individual containing a name, date of birth, or other descriptions recorded in a document or electromagnetic record.

The personal information we collect is used to operate the school and provide related services. We use information about student learning to make decisions that help each child reach their potential. We use the email addresses of our community members to send targeted messages conveying important information. We store and use the phone numbers of ASIJ parents and their emergency contacts to ensure that students are kept safe. We store a large amount of personal information and we use it with care in ways that align with our core values: we treat your information with character, courage and compassion.

Provision of personal information

ASIJ shares your personal information only in ways that you would expect. We transmit information between databases so that personal information is kept up to date in a variety of systems with only a single point of entry. Those systems hold data on our behalf. We share report cards and transcripts with other institutions when requested to do so in ways that help our students transition to other schools or universities. We share appropriate and accurate personal information with trusted adults, such as teachers, bus drivers, trip chaperones, medical professionals, and coaches in order to conduct school operations and ensure safety. 

Access to special care personal information, such as racial or ethnic group membership data or medical history records, (as defined in Article 2.3 of the Amended Act on the Protection of Personal Information) is restricted to the appropriate employees. By default, employees only have the most basic access to personal information databases. Higher levels of access are granted only as necessary. 

Trusted adults who are not employees of the school, such as trip chaperones, coaches, or parent volunteers, may be given access to personal information on an as-needed basis. These trusted adults will be required to agree to the current ASIJ data usage procedures. 

Personal information is not transmitted, revealed, or disclosed to third parties except in cases where information is urgently required to protect the life, physical body, or possessions of another person and in cases specified by Article 23, Section 1 of the Personal Information Protection Law of Japan.

ASIJ will never sell your personal information.

Technical safety management of personal information

ASIJ takes necessary and appropriate measures for security control of personal data. ASIJ uses encryption technology known as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) on pages where users enter their personal information. SSL encrypts and authenticates information transmitted between the browser and the web server, preventing the theft or alteration of data by a third party.

ASIJ uses best practices in network security, including enforcement of strong passwords. We provide specific training to prevent targeted cyber attacks. We abide by our legal obligations to report any data breach to the affected data subject(s) and the Personal Privacy Commission.

ASIJ Website Privacy Policy

We have created this statement to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy. We do not collect personally identifying information about you when you visit our site. We collect and store only the following information about you: the name of the domain from which you access the internet, the date and time you access our site, and the address of the website from which you linked to our site. 

We use the information we collect to measure the number of visitors to the different sections of our site, and to help us make our site more useful to visitors.
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Use of Links

Throughout our site, we provide links to other sites and servers that may contain information of interest to our readers. We take no responsibility for, and exercise no control over, the organizations, views, or accuracy of the information contained on other servers.
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Use of Text and Images

If you would like to publish information that you find on our website, please send your request to webmaster@asij.ac.jp. Where text or images are posted on our site with the permission of the original copyright holder, a copyright statement appears at the bottom of the page. 

All images and logos are the property of ASIJ or any credited author and may not be replicated in any fashion without prior consent. Information about using our logo and images is available from communications@asij.ac.jp. 

The American School in Japan is located in Tokyo, Japan. Our physical addresses are located in the footer of our website.  


For questions or complaints about our use of data, please contact the Director of Technology, Warren Apel, at itdirector@asij.ac.jp. We respond promptly to requests from data subjects. If you want to exercise your right of disclosure, correction, addition, or deletion, the process is as simple as sending us an email.