Terms of Service


These Terms of Services (hereinafter referred to as "Terms") shall stipulate the conditions of use of the services projected and provided by Innovation Foundation for Water and Regional Revitalization (hereinafter referred to as "the Foundation") (hereinafter referred to as "the Services" as defined in Sub-Article 1 of Article 1 hereof). Be sure to read and agree upon these Terms before using the Services.

Article 1 (Definitions)

In these Terms, the following words shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them:
(1) “Services” means a set of services aimed at waterside surveys applying the Water Environment Soundness Index promulgated by the Environment Ministry of Japan and at representations, retention and utilizations of the results thereof (the Services are commonly called "Mizube Go!" ("Let’s go to a river together!")). In case of a revision of the Services under these Terms, the revised Services shall apply.
(2) "Site" means the website screen and the start screen of the app that are planned, created and operated by the Foundation on which the contents of the Services are posted.
(3) "Contents" shall be a collective term of the text messages, photos, sounds, still images, moving images, software programs, codes, etc. provided on the Site as part of the Services. The Contents shall include those provided by both the Foundation and the Users (as hereinafter defined), which mean the Waterside Data (as defined in the following item.)
(4) "Waterside Data" shall be a collective term of the waterside survey results (including survey results, comments and photos) posted by the Users (including any other users of the Services) onto the Site.
(5) "Users" means all those who use the Services.
(6)
(7) "Intellectual Property" means inventions, devices, designs, works and other property that is produced through creative activities by human beings (including discovered or solved laws of nature or natural phenomena that are industrially available), trademarks, trade names and others that indicate goods or services used for business activities, and trade secrets and other technical or business information useful for business activities.
(8) "Intellectual property right" means a patent right, a utility model right, a design right, a copyright, a trademark right, a right that is stipulated by laws and regulations of Japan on other intellectual property, or a right pertaining to an interest that is protected by law (the patent right, the utility model and the design right shall respectively include pending patent, utility model, and design right applications).

Article 2 (Agreement to these Terms)

1. The Users may use the Services only if they have agreed to these Terms. The Users may not use the Services if they disagree.
2. By using the Services, the Users shall be deemed to have agreed validly and irrevocably to these Terms.
3. The Users shall abide by these Terms and the notes of caution on the Site and use the Services on their own responsibility. If the Users are under the age of majority, they should use the Services with their parent or statutory agent.

Article 3 (Modification to these Terms)

1. the Foundation reserves the right to modify these Terms any time. The Users shall agree to the Foundation’s such right without reservation.
2. If the Foundation modifies these Terms, the Foundation will notify the Users of the terms and condition thereof applicable after the modification two weeks prior to the modification by posting them on the Site.
3. The modification hereto shall become effective on the date of implementation of the modified Terms that is to be set forth in the supplemental provisions hereof.
4. By using the Services after the modification hereof, the Users consent to the modified Terms. If the Users do not consent to the modified terms and conditions hereof, the Users cannot use the Services.

Article 4 (Usage Fee)

The Users may use the Services without compensation. Provided, however, that the Users shall prepare any and all terminal equipment, communication equipment, Internet connection and others necessary to use the Services at the Users’ expense and responsibility, and the Users shall bear any cost such as communication cost arising from and in connection with the use of the Services.

Article 5 (Waterside Data)

1. The Users may upload the Waterside Data onto the Site.
2. Provided, however, that in case where the Waterside Data (1) are considered to infringe on others’ rights (including, but not limited to, intellectual property rights, portrait rights and privacy rights); (2) are considered by the Foundation to be improper for posting them onto the Site since they may be contrary to the objectives of the Services such as those causing discomfort; or (3) are considered by the Foundation to fall under the category of any Prohibited Acts under Article 8 hereof, the Foundation may modify or delete (including to prevent the relevant Users from obtaining access to the Services) the Waterside Data uploaded without prior notice.
3. Intellectual property rights to the Waterside Data provided by the Users shall belong to the said Users. Provided, however, that the said Users shall grant the Foundation and any third parties designated by the Foundation (such as the Authorized Users, the Foundation’s associate organizations and service providers) a non-exclusive and sub-licensable license to utilize (including to use, duplicate, transmit to the public including to make available for transmission, display, circulate, assign, edit, translate, and alternate) the rights unrestrictedly without compensation within the scope of the purpose of the Services.
Please note that the Waterside Data provided may be used on the Site, or by any of the Foundation’s associate organizations or service providers.
4. The grant of the license under the preceding item 3 hereof shall survive termination of the Users’ use of the Services, and the Users shall not exercise author’s morale rights against the utilization under the preceding item 3 hereof.
5. In cases where any claim, legal proceeding or lawsuit is filed against the Foundation by a third party alleging that the Waterside Data uploaded onto the Site infringe his right (including, but not limited to, his intellectual property right, portrait right and privacy right), the Users shall cooperate with the Foundation in solving such a dispute subject to Sub-Ariticle 10 of Article 9 hereof.

Article 6 (Rights to the Services)

Any and all intellectual property rights and other rights to the software used for provision of and the contents of the Services shall belong to the Foundation or any other legitimate right holders except for those to the Waterside Data provided by the Users.

Article 7 (Cooperation with external services)

1. The Services may provide dynamic data link to external social networking services provided by a third party or third parties (hereinafter referred to as "External Services"). In case where the Users use such External Services, the Users agree to accept that the Waterside Data provided by the Users may be provided to the External Services and that any other information such as the URL of a webpage relating to the Services may also be provided therewith when the Waterside Data are provided to the External Services.
2. The use of the External Services shall be governed by the terms and conditions provided by the operators of such External Services. the Foundation shall have no responsibility in any way for any disputes between the Users and any third parties, or for any damage incurred by the Users, arising in connection with the use of the External Services.

Article 8 (Prohibited Acts)

When using the Service, the Users shall be prohibited by the Foundation from performing the following acts. In case where the Foundation recognizes that the Users have violated any of the prohibitions hereunder, the Foundation may modify or delete the Waterside Data; halt all or part of the use of the Services; or take whatever measures the Foundation deems necessary, and the Users shall accept such measures taken without objection. The Users shall compensate the Foundation or third parties for any damages (including litigation cost and legal fees) incurred by the Foundation or the third parties due to the Users’ performance of any of the acts prohibited hereunder.
(1) Acts that will or may infringe any of the intellectual property rights of the Foundation or a third party;
(2) Acts that will or may injure the honor or confidence of, or unjustly discriminate or defame, the Foundation or a third party;
(3) Acts that will or may invade the property of the Foundation or a third party;
(4) Acts that will or may threaten the Foundation or a third party;
(5) Acts that will or may use or induce harmful programs such as computer viruses;
(6) Acts that will or may add stress which will put an excess load on the infrastructure for the Services;
(7) Acts that will or may attack the servers, systems, or information security of the Site;
(8) Acts that will or may attempt to break into the Services by means other than the interface provided by the Foundation;
(9) Acts that will or may analyze, decode, decompile, disassemble, or reverse-engineer the software or contents in use for the Services;
(10) Acts that will or may use the contents (including, but not limited to, the Waterside Data) of the Services for duplication, transmission to the public, display, circulation, assignment, edition, translation, alternation, reprinting, selling, publication and others beyond the scope of private use without the Foundation’s prior approval;
(11) Acts that will or may post the following contents onto the Site:
(i) Information pertaining to crimes, torts or dangerous actions, or information to abet or aid them;
(ii) Information intended to perform an illicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, racist, defamatory, libelous, insulting, harassing, instigating or offensive act, or information liable to produce such an outcome resultantly;
(iii) Information that is false or known to be nonexistent;
(iv) Information that the Users do not have the right to control, such as trade secrets;
(v) Information violating any intellectual property rights including a third party’s copyrights, and any other property rights, and information damaging the public interest or violating any individual rights (including, but not limited to, other people’s rights of portrait and to privacy);
(vi) Information deemed to be obscenity, child pornography or child abuse;
(vii) Information enabling the identification of specific individuals, such as face photos, names, addresses and telephone numbers (including information enabling the identification of specific individuals by easily checking other information);
(viii) Information against laws, such as the Act on Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora;
(ix) Information pertaining to the rare and endangered speciesclassified in the red data books (red lists), etc. of the central and/or local governments of Japan; and
(x) Information violating public order and morals that the Foundation deems inappropriate.
(12) Acts that will or may contravene these Terms; and
(13) Acts that the Foundation deems inappropriate.

Article 9 (Disclaimer)

1. the Foundation shall make no warranties regarding fitness for the Users’ particular purposes; the accuracy, recency and usability of content; and the non-occurrence of bugs.
2. the Foundation shall accept no liability or responsibility for performing monitoring or investigations of any conduct of the Users violating these Terms or affecting the Services. Provided, however, that the Foundation has the right to perform these acts for the purpose of operating the Services, ensuring compliance with these Terms, and complying with the statutory requirements of laws, regulations and others.
3. If the Foundation has received complaints against, or requests for modification, deletion, etc. of, the Waterside Data submitted from any other Users or a third party, the Foundation may determine at its own discretion whether it agrees to their requests, provided that the Foundation shall be under no obligation to clarify the reasons and circumstances that led to such determination.
4. the Foundation shall accept no responsibility for the disappearance or damage of any and all data submitted to the Foundation including the Waterside Data. Each of the Users shall save a backup of the data to be submitted on his/her responsibility.
5. the Foundation shall have no involvement in and accept no responsibility for the Users’ computer-mediated environments for the usage of the Services.
6. the Foundation shall not warrant that the Services will be compatible with any and all information terminals. The Users shall agree beforehand that they may have a problem with the behavior of the Site in association with version upgrades and the like of the information terminals used for the Services. the Foundation shall not warrant that in case of any such problem, the problem will be fixed by the Foundation’s reprogramming and the like.
7. The Users shall agree beforehand that any changes in the terms of service or operation policies of application stores such as App Store, Google Play, etc. may restrict use of all or part of the Services.
8. the Foundation shall accept no liability for damages of any kind whatsoever directly or indirectly incurred by the Users arising from use of the Services.
9. Should a dispute or trouble arise with any other Users or a third party in connection with use of the Services, the Users shall resolve the dispute or trouble at their own expense and responsibility and shall not cause any nuisance or damage to the Foundation.
10. Should a third party claim damages from the Foundation due to the Users’ conducts, the Users shall solve such matter at the Users’ own expense and responsibility. If the Foundation has paid the damages to the third party, the Users shall reimburse all expenses (including legal costs and attorneys’ fees) including the said damages to the Foundation.

Article 10 (Change or Discontinuation of the Services)

the Foundation may change the contents of the Services at its own discretion without prior notice to the Users. the Foundation may discontinue the provision of the Services in the event of maintenance on equipment for the provision of the Services, natural disasters and accidents, and any other emergency circumstances. the Foundation shall accept no responsibility for any damage incurred by the Users or a third party arising from the change or discontinuation of the Services.

Article 11 (Termination of the Services)

1. the Foundation may cease or terminate (hereinafter collectively referred to as "terminate") the provision of all or part of the Services by prior notice to the Users such as positing it on the Site.
2. If the Services terminate, the Users shall forfeit all rights to use the Services and agree without any argument beforehand that all contents including the Seaside Data submitted by the Users will be deleted thereafter on the Foundation’s part.
3. the Foundation shall accept no liability for damage of any kind whatsoever incurred by the Users or a third party arising out of the termination of the Services.

Article 12 (Non-assignment)

1. The Users shall not assign all or part of their status and rights or obligations under these Terms to a third party without prior written consent of the Foundation.
2. the Foundation may assign all or part of the Services to a third party at its own discretion. In that case, all of the Users’ rights and obligations related to the Services shall be assigned to the transferee within the rights assigned. The Users shall agree beforehand to such assignment and others hereunder.

Article 13 (Severability)

Should any provision or portion of these Terms be deemed invalid or unenforceable in accordance with the Consumer Contract Act of Japan or any other laws and regulations thereof, any provision or portion hereof other than the provision or portion deemed invalid or unenforceable shall remain in full force.

Article 14 (Means of Communication)

The Users’ communication or inquiries to the Foundation relating to the Services shall be made through transmission of the inquiry form on the Site, or by the method separately designated by the Foundation. the Foundation will reply in principle via email. The Users acknowledge that it may take the Foundation a while to reply due to investigations and the like and that the Foundation may not reply to all inquiries and comments received.

Article 15 (Prohibition of Using the Serves by Antisocial Forces)

Any person who falls under any of the following items is prohibited to use the Services:
(1) An organized crime group, a member or a sub-member of or a corporation related to an organized crime group, a racketeer attempting to extort money from a company by threatening to cause trouble at a general stockholders’ meeting or by acting as if advocating legitimate social causes, a special intelligence organized group, or an equivalent thereof (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Antisocial Forces");
(2) A person who has a relationship in which it is deemed that he/she uses Antisocial Forces for the purpose of ensuring unjustified benefits to himself/herself or a third party, or for the purpose of inflicting harm to a third party;
(3) A person who cooperates or gets involved with Antisocial Forces’ maintenance and operation by providing funds, etc. or benefits to Antisocial Forces; or
(4) A person who has relationship with Antisocial Forces in a socially reprehensible way.

Article 16 (Language)

The Terms prepared in Japanese shall be authentic, while the Terms prepared in English shall be a reference. In case of discrepancies between them, the Japanese language shall prevail.

Article 17 (Governing Law and Competent Court)

1. The Services and these Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Japan.
2. Should a legal dispute arise between the Foundation and any of the Users regarding the Services and these Terms, the Tokyo District Court or the Tokyo Summary Court shall be the exclusive consensus court of jurisdiction for its first trial depending on the amount of claimed damages.

Supplemental provision:

Enforced on March 15th, 2023.

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