Terms, fees, and service boundary

1. Service

We provide inquiry, authorization support, domestic proxy receipt, visual matching, ordinary repacking, and physical handoff to a courier selected and contracted by the customer. We do not provide or resell transportation, customs brokerage, legal services, or a guarantee of recovery or delivery.

2. Free feasibility check

The feasibility check is free. The customer supplies the item, up to five candidate locations, and the customer's own contact email for our reply. This is not a facility email, and it is not used to contact a facility. No payment is taken and no facility is contacted at this stage. We reply within 24 hours about whether an initial Japanese inquiry looks practical. If the customer does not approve the formal request, there is no service fee.

3. Formal request: no upfront fee

A new formal request has no start fee and no card payment at submission. The customer authorizes Japan Lost Item Rescue to make the listed Japanese inquiries, and we aim to begin within 24 hours. We complete initial inquiries to up to five selected facilities within three days and report the results on the case page. These are service-timing targets, not a guarantee that a facility will respond, release the item, or that the item will be recovered.

The customer may ask us to stop before the service is fully performed. Work already carried out and any success fee that has already become due remain payable where applicable.

4. Success fee: USD 70+ across four size tiers

The USD 70+ success fee becomes due only after the requested item is found, received at our Japanese address, and reasonably matched to the customer's description. It varies across four size tiers — small, medium, large, and extra-large — because a fixed surcharge applies. The exact amount is confirmed after staff physically inspect the item and issue the payment link. Courier handoff occurs after payment.

International courier charges, customs duties, import taxes, and destination fees are not included and are not charged by us. Non-standard packing, if needed, is agreed with the customer in advance before any cost is incurred.

5. International shipping is arranged and paid by the customer

International shipping is separate from the success fee. We do not sell, resell, or mark up transportation, and we do not receive any part of what the courier charges.

After a match, the customer arranges the shipment with DHL or another available courier and pays the courier directly. We complete the Japan-side details and hand the parcel over. We never need the customer's courier password, login credentials, or payment-card details.

Customs duties, import taxes, and destination charges are the customer's responsibility. If no courier option is available, we agree an alternative handover; we cannot complete a return without a shipping arrangement made by the customer.

6. Exclusions

We may reject regulated, dangerous, illegal, highly valuable, identity-sensitive, perishable, or otherwise unsuitable items. We may stop a case if ownership, identity, facility authorization, or lawful shipment cannot be established.

7. Temporary custody and unclaimed items

Custody is incidental to verification and courier handoff, not a storage service. We hold a matched item without a storage fee for seven calendar days after emailing the matched-item notice. The customer must pay the success fee and provide courier pickup instructions within that period.

If the customer does not respond, we send a final notice and may suspend service. Depending on the item and the original facility's rules, we may continue storage for a separately disclosed reasonable fee, return it to the facility, transfer it to an appropriate authority, or seek the customer's separate disposal instruction. Any disposal occurs only after notice and where permitted by law.

8. Responsibility

The customer is responsible for accurate ownership, contact, payment, customs, and pickup information and for responding to notices. We are not responsible for delay or extra cost caused solely by inaccurate information or the customer's failure to respond, except to the extent caused by our intentional misconduct or negligence and subject to applicable law. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

9. Historical cases

Cases submitted under an earlier recorded consent version may retain the fee and refund terms shown and accepted at that time. New formal requests use the no-upfront, success-fee-only terms above.

10. Google Maps

The location selector is provided using Google Maps Platform. By using it, the customer also agrees to the Google Terms of Service and the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms.