These Terms explain the rules for using Michi to Japan, a Japanese-learning app created by Michi. By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these Terms.
1. About the Service
The service provides Japanese language education, Japanese learning materials, AI conversation practice, Japanese countryside recommendations, cultural information, and related educational content.
2. Eligibility
The service is intended for people age 15 or older. If you are under 18 (or under the age of majority where you live), you may use the service only with the agreement of a parent or guardian, who also agrees to these Terms for you. Applicable local laws may impose additional requirements, and you are responsible for following them.
3. User Accounts
You are responsible for:
- Providing accurate account information
- Keeping your login credentials secure
- Not sharing your account
- Preventing unauthorized access to your account
- Notifying us of suspected unauthorized access
4. Subscription and Billing
Plans and prices
Prices are per month, in Japanese yen, and include tax. The price shown is the total you pay:
- 梅 Ume (the course): ¥5,980/month. The 90-lesson course.
- 竹 Take (group sessions): ¥9,980/month. The course, plus a live group session with the teacher every Sunday at 9:00 AM Japan time.
- 松 Matsu (private lessons): ¥24,800/month. Everything in Take, plus 4 one-on-one lessons a month.
On November 1, 2026 two plan names were swapped to follow the traditional order of 松・竹・梅: the course plan, which was called 松 Matsu, is now called 梅 Ume, and the private lessons plan, which was called 梅 Ume, is now called 松 Matsu. 竹 Take did not change. Only the names changed: the prices, what each plan includes and the billing dates of existing members stay the same.
Creating an account is free. With a free account, Lesson 1, the hiragana sheet and reading the class chat are free. All other lessons and features, including writing in the class chat, need a subscription.
Members who were on the waitlist when the course opened on November 1, 2026 get a 20% recurring discount on Ume (¥4,784/month) and on Take (¥7,984/month). There is no waitlist discount on Matsu. To get the discount you must subscribe within 2 weeks after the course opens, that is, by November 15, 2026, 1:00 PM Japan time; after that it is no longer available. The waitlist price applies to each monthly charge for as long as the qualifying subscription remains active.
Subscriptions are billed through Stripe and renew automatically every month until cancelled. The applicable price is shown clearly before you pay. If you live outside Japan, you may see an approximate price in your own currency. The amount you are actually charged is converted from yen by Stripe when you pay, so it can change with exchange rates.
Changing your plan
You can change your plan at any time with the "Change plan" button on your Account page.
- To a bigger plan (for example Ume to Take, or Take to Matsu): the change starts right away. You pay only the difference for the rest of your current billing period, charged to your card when you confirm. The price is shown before you confirm. Your billing day does not change, and from your next renewal you pay the monthly price of the new plan.
- To a smaller plan (for example Matsu to Take, or Take to Ume): the change starts from your next monthly renewal. Until then you keep your current plan, and your price stays the same for the rest of the month. No refund or credit is given for the rest of the current billing period. You can cancel the change before it starts.
- Private lessons: if you change to Matsu in the middle of a month, the number of private lessons for the rest of that month is 4 multiplied by the days left in that month, divided by the days in that month, rounded up. From the next month you have 4 a month. If you change away from Matsu, private lessons cannot be booked for after the change starts.
- Waitlist discount: the discount continues if you change between Ume and Take. Matsu has no waitlist discount, so if you change to Matsu the discount ends, and it does not come back if you later change to Ume or Take.
- If you cancel your membership, a change to a smaller plan that has not started yet is cancelled, and you keep your current plan until the end of the paid period.
- If the payment for a change to a bigger plan does not go through, your plan is not changed and you are not charged.
Michi Private Course
Michi Private Course is a course where Michi teaches you privately. It is for one learner or for two learners together, for the same price. You pay once, or in 6 monthly payments (see “Monthly payments” below). It does not renew by itself.
- Price: ¥358,000 (tax included), in one payment.
- Monthly payments: instead of one payment, you may pay 6 monthly payments of ¥60,000 (tax included; ¥360,000 in all). Your card is charged automatically each month, starting on the day you sign up. You have 4 private lessons for each month of the course; lessons you do not use carry over to the next month. All 6 payments are required and cannot be stopped in the middle, except where the law allows. If there is an urgent reason, please email michinihongokyoshitsu@gmail.com. If a payment fails, you have 7 days to fix it; after that your access is paused until the payment is made.
- Length: 6 months from your payment.
- Private lessons: 24 lessons with Michi, 50 minutes each. You book them on your own page, from the times Michi offers. If two people learn together, they share the 24 lessons.
- The app: full access to the Michi to Japan app for the 6 months, for each learner. When the 6 months end, access to the app ends.
- Moving or cancelling a lesson: you can do it on your page up to 1 day before the lesson. A request made within 1 day of the lesson is not accepted: the lesson counts as used, and no refund or replacement lesson is given.
- Refunds: refunds and cancellations follow applicable law. Except where a refund is required by applicable law, payments are non-refundable after the program materials or services have been made available.
Group sessions and private lessons
- Group sessions (Take and Matsu): you can cancel at any time before the session starts.
- Private lessons (Matsu): you can cancel or move a private lesson up to 24 hours before it starts. If you cancel or move it less than 24 hours before it starts, it still counts as one of your 4 private lessons for that month. If you move it, the new time counts as another lesson.
- You can cancel or move sessions in the app, under "Live sessions" on your Japanese page.
- If Michi has to cancel a session, Michi will set a new date and tell you in the app and by email.
5. Cancellation and Closing Your Account
You may cancel at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current paid billing period. You keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for, and you will not be charged for the next billing period. Access ends when the current paid billing period ends.
You can also close your account at the bottom of your Account page ("Close my account"). Your subscription will not renew, and you keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for. Your data is then kept for one more month. If you come back within that month, it is still there. After that month, your data is deleted, except records we must keep by law (see our Privacy Policy). Payment records are kept by Stripe.
6. Refunds
Payments are non-refundable except where required by applicable law. Cancellation prevents future charges but does not automatically create a refund for the current or any previous billing period. See our Refund Policy.
Changing to a bigger plan is not a refund or a new purchase: the amount you paid for the old plan is counted in the price of the change. Changing to a smaller plan does not give a refund or a credit for the current billing period.
If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may ask for a refund within 14 days of your first subscription payment. Write to michinihongokyoshitsu@gmail.com within those 14 days, and Michi will refund what you paid.
7. Account Suspension or Termination
Michi may suspend or terminate accounts for serious violations, including:
- Sharing paid course materials
- Unauthorized access
- Attempting to bypass lesson restrictions
- Fraudulent activity
- Harassment
- Illegal activity
- Other serious violations of these Terms
Payments already made are generally non-refundable except where required by applicable law.
8. Intellectual Property
All original content created by Michi for the app is owned by Michi or used with appropriate rights. This includes the 90 worksheets, lessons, grammar explanations, exercises, videos, audio, images owned by Michi, the original curriculum, educational materials, original AI prompts and content, and other original materials in the app.
While you have authorized access, you receive a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the materials for your own personal educational purposes. You may not:
- Copy the course
- Share worksheets with non-subscribers
- Upload course materials elsewhere
- Resell course materials
- Redistribute course materials
- Commercially exploit the materials
- Circumvent access restrictions
9. Lesson Unlocking
Lessons may be progressively unlocked as you complete previous lessons. You may not attempt to bypass, manipulate, or circumvent the lesson unlocking system.
10. AI Features
The AI conversation partner 「愛」 is provided as an educational tool. Answers may also be graded and some lesson content may be prepared with the help of AI.
AI-generated responses are provided for educational purposes and may occasionally contain errors. AI responses should not be treated as guaranteed or authoritative information.
Michi does not guarantee that every AI response will be accurate, complete, or appropriate. Please use reasonable judgment when relying on AI-generated information.
11. Learning Results
The app does not guarantee that you will become fluent in Japanese or reach a particular level within three months or any other specific period. Results depend on factors including lesson completion, study frequency, practice, prior knowledge, individual learning differences, and your own effort.
12. Japanese Countryside and Travel Information
The app may provide recommendations about Japanese countryside destinations and experiences. Recommendations may come from Michi, other students, or other sources. Michi does not guarantee:
- Destination availability
- Opening hours
- Transportation availability
- Weather
- Prices
- Safety
- The accuracy of every recommendation
- The availability of businesses or facilities
- That a destination will meet your expectations
Please verify important travel information yourself before you travel.
12A. Japanese Partner Chat
Paid members who have finished lesson 28 can chat with a Japanese partner. A partner is a person living in Japan who enjoys meeting people from other countries and joins the partner chat for free. Michi chooses one partner for each student.
- Who can use it: paid members who have finished lesson 28. Partners are adults who are 18 or older.
- Michi can read every chat. Partner chats are not private from Michi. This is for your safety. Michi can also listen to every voice message.
- No personal contact information. Please do not share your email address, phone number, links, or social media and messaging IDs. The app stops some of these messages, but it cannot stop all of them. Please be careful.
- Be kind. Do not send messages that are rude, threatening, sexual, or that ask for money or personal information. Michi may stop a chat, or remove a partner or a member, who breaks these rules.
- Report. You can report a problem at any time. Michi will look at every report. If you want a different partner, please ask Michi.
- Partners join for free. Partners are not paid, and they do not pay to join. They do not receive any part of the membership fee that students pay. Partners may join the community events without paying the event fee, but they pay the actual costs of the event themselves (for example, their own food and drinks). They are not teachers or employees of Michi to Japan. Michi does not promise that a partner will always answer, or how fast.
- Voice messages. You can send a voice message of up to 60 seconds. Voice messages are deleted 7 days after they are sent. A voice message in a chat with a report that Michi has not handled yet is kept until she has. Please do not say personal contact information in a voice message: the app cannot check what is said.
- Deleting messages. When a chat ends (you get a different partner, or your membership ends), its messages are deleted. A chat with a report that Michi has not handled yet is kept until she has.
- The partner chat can change or stop at any time.
13. User-Generated Content
The service includes community features such as the class chat. You may submit text, photos, travel experiences, recommendations, and comments. You must not submit:
- Illegal content
- Harassment
- Threats
- Hate-based abusive content
- Sexually explicit content
- Spam
- Scams
- Impersonation
- Copyright-infringing content
- Other people's private information without permission
- Malicious content
- Intentionally misleading information
Michi may remove content or restrict accounts that violate these rules. See the Community Guidelines.
14. User Content
You keep ownership of the content you create and submit. You give Michi permission to store and display your submitted content within the service, as needed to operate it. This permission does not allow Michi to sell your content, or to publish it outside the service, except for the optional permission described below.
Optional: featuring your work
Separately, and only if you choose to, you may give Michi permission to feature your lesson essays and your voice recordings (the writing and the recordings you make for lessons) outside the service. You can do this when you sign up or at any time on your Account page. It is optional. You can use the whole service without giving it, and Michi will not feature your work unless you have.
If you give this permission:
- Where. Michi may publish your work on the Michi to Japan website, on Michi's social media and video accounts (for example Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, Facebook and LINE), and in promotional material for Michi to Japan.
- How. Michi may make the small changes needed to publish it, such as trimming a recording, adding captions, subtitles, translations or comments, and adding music or pictures around it. Michi will not change your words in a way that changes their meaning.
- Your name. Michi will show your name only the way you chose: your full name as it appears on your account, your initials only, or no name at all. Michi will not publish your email address or other contact details.
- No payment. The permission is free of charge, not exclusive, valid worldwide, and lasts until you withdraw it. You keep ownership of your work and may use it yourself. Within the limits above, you agree that Michi will not be treated as infringing your moral rights as an author (著作者人格権) when it uses your work as described.
- Withdrawing. You can withdraw your permission at any time on your Account page. After you withdraw, Michi will make no new posts with your work and will remove it from the website and from the social media accounts Michi controls within 30 days. Michi cannot remove copies that other people have already saved, shared or reposted, and material already included in printed or archived items may remain until it is next updated. Withdrawing does not affect your account or your lessons.
- Your promises. You confirm that the work is your own and that you are allowed to give this permission. A voice recording can identify you, so only give this permission if you are comfortable with that, and do not include other people's personal information. If you are under 18 (or under the age of majority where you live), give it only with the permission of a parent or guardian.
15. Limitation of Liability
The service is provided for educational and informational purposes. We do not guarantee specific learning results or specific travel experiences, and we do not guarantee that third-party destination information is accurate or current. To the extent permitted by applicable law, Michi is not liable for losses that result from relying on this information. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot legally be excluded or limited, or any consumer rights you have under applicable law.
16. Changes to the Service
Michi may update, modify, add, or remove app features, lessons, AI features, recommendations, and community features.
17. Changes to Terms
Michi may update these Terms when necessary. Where a change is material, we will tell you by email and by a notice in the app.
18. Governing Law
[GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION TO BE CONFIRMED]
19. Contact
Questions about these Terms: michinihongokyoshitsu@gmail.com