Yomidori
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Terms of Service

Effective and last updated 21 September 2026.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Zotic GK (Zotic合同会社), a company registered in Japan ("Zotic", "we", "us"). They govern your use of the Yomidori mobile app and the yomidori.com website (together, the "Service").

By using the Service you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which explains what data we collect and which service providers process it. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

Questions? Email support@zotic.co.jp.

1. What Yomidori is

Yomidori is a tool for learning to read and listen to Japanese. You read or listen to Japanese content, look up words as you go, save the ones you want to learn, and review your saved words and their kanji on a spaced-repetition schedule. The Service also teaches kana and kanji through stroke-order animation, stories and handwriting practice.

Yomidori is a study tool. It does not guarantee any particular learning outcome, test result or level of fluency.

2. Who can use the Service

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under the age of legal majority where you live, you may use the Service only with the permission of a parent or legal guardian, who agrees to these Terms on your behalf.

You may not use the Service if applicable law (including export-control or sanctions law) prohibits you from doing so.

3. Using Yomidori with or without an account

You can use most of Yomidori without an account. Reading, looking up words, saving words, reviewing, learning kana and your first kanji, and importing content that is processed on your device all work without signing up. The app keeps that work on your device.

Some features run on our servers and need an account: backing up and syncing your learning progress, AI sentence translation, adding podcasts, and the Premium features described in section 4. You can create an account with an email address and password, or sign in with Google or Apple. When you sign in, the work already on your device is merged into your account, not replaced.

You are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for activity under your account. Accounts are personal: one person per account, and you may not share, sell or transfer yours.

4. Free and Premium

4.1 Free

Yomidori is free to use, with limits on how much you can add. The free tier includes a limited number of saved words, the first stage of the kanji course, a limited number of imported items kept active in your library at once, and a small lifetime allowance of AI sentence translation (with an account). The current limits are shown in the app. We may change them from time to time.

These limits only ever stop you adding new items. Reviewing, reading and using what you have already saved is never limited, on any tier, and you can export your saved words at any time.

4.2 Premium

Premium is a paid subscription that removes or raises those limits. It includes the full kanji course and custom kanji stories, an unlimited saved-word bank, AI sentence translation, server-based text recognition for photos and scans, transcription of audio files and podcast episodes, and syncing your library (including imported content) across your devices.

Some Premium features have fair-use allowances because they cost us real money to run: podcast transcription is measured in minutes per month, and library storage has a per-account ceiling. Current allowances are shown in the app. If you reach an allowance, that feature pauses until it resets or you free up space. Allowances cannot be bought, transferred or exchanged for money.

We may add, change or remove individual features over time. We will not remove a core feature of Premium during a subscription period you have already paid for.

4.3 If your subscription ends

You keep everything you built. Your saved words, kanji progress and imported content stay in the app and stay reviewable. The free limits apply again to adding new items. Your library stops syncing to new devices, and the copies already on your devices remain available.

5. Subscriptions, trials and billing

5.1 Billing through the app stores

Premium is sold as a monthly or annual subscription through the Apple App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google processes your payment, and their terms also apply to your purchase. Prices are shown in the app and on the store before you buy, in your local currency, including any applicable tax.

5.2 Automatic renewal

  • Payment is charged to your app store account when you confirm the purchase.
  • Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each period, at the then-current price, unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the period ends.
  • Your account is charged for renewal within the 24 hours before the current period ends.
  • You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time in your app store account settings. Deleting the app or your Yomidori account does not cancel it.
  • If you cancel, Premium stays active until the end of the period you have paid for.

5.3 Free trials and promotions

The annual plan may include a free trial (currently 7 days). If you do not cancel before the trial ends, it converts to a paid annual subscription and the app store charges you. Any unused part of a free trial ends when you buy a subscription. We may also offer promotional access, for example through a referral link. Each trial or promotion is available once per person, and we may limit or end promotions at any time.

5.4 Price changes

If we change the price of a subscription, we will tell you in advance, and the app store will ask for your consent where it requires it. A new price applies from your next renewal, never to a period you have already paid for.

5.5 Refunds

Because purchases are processed by Apple or Google, refund requests go to them and are decided under their policies:

  • Apple: reportaproblem.apple.com
  • Google Play: play.google.com/store/account/orderhistory

We do not issue refunds ourselves, and we honour any refund the store grants. Nothing in this section limits refund rights you have under mandatory consumer law.

6. Content you bring into Yomidori

6.1 It stays yours

You can bring your own content into Yomidori: photos of pages, books and documents, pasted text, audio files, podcasts and web pages. You keep all rights in content you import. You give us permission to process, store and display it only as needed to provide the features you use, such as reading it, recognising its text, transcribing it, and syncing it to your devices.

6.2 Where it is processed

Photos, books and pasted text are processed on your device by default and are not sent to our servers. Content leaves your device only when you use a feature that needs a server, such as server-based text recognition, transcription, AI translation or Premium library sync. Our Privacy Policy explains which service providers process it.

6.3 Your responsibility

You may import only content you have the right to use, for your own personal study. You are responsible for the content you import. Do not import content that is illegal or that infringes anyone else's rights, and do not use Yomidori to copy, share or distribute other people's work.

If we receive a valid notice that content in the Service infringes someone's rights, we may remove or disable it. To report infringement, email support@zotic.co.jp with the details.

7. Podcasts, web pages and other people's content

7.1 Podcasts

When you add a podcast, Yomidori reads its public feed and plays episodes directly from the podcast's own servers. We do not copy or re-host the audio. The podcast belongs to its creator, and the creator's own terms apply to it.

When you transcribe an episode, we create a transcript so you can read along. A transcript of a publicly available episode may be shared with other Yomidori users who transcribe the same episode, so that it is only made once. Transcripts are provided for personal study. If a podcast creator asks us to, or indicates in their feed that they do not want their show transcribed, we may stop transcribing it or remove existing transcripts.

7.2 Web pages

The web reader opens pages directly on your device. We do not control third-party websites or their content, and their own terms apply.

7.3 Our catalogue

Yomidori includes content we provide or license, such as dialogues written for beginners and content from creators we work with. It is licensed to you for personal study in the app only. You may not copy, redistribute or publish it. Some of it may be created with the help of AI tools.

Creator content is shown with the creator's name and a link to their own channels. It remains the property of its creator.

8. AI features

Some features use third-party AI models: sentence translation, server-based text recognition, and speech-to-text transcription.

AI output can be wrong. Translations, recognised text and transcripts are study aids and are provided "as is". Do not rely on them for medical, legal, financial or other important decisions. You may use AI output for your own study, but you may not present it as your own original work or redistribute it commercially.

9. Acceptable use

When you use the Service, you agree not to:

  • reverse-engineer, decompile or attempt to extract the app's source code, except where the law allows it;
  • scrape, bulk-download or extract content or data from the Service, or use automated means to access it;
  • get around usage limits, allowances, paywalls or other technical restrictions;
  • interfere with the Service, its security or other people's use of it;
  • resell, sublicense or commercially exploit the Service or its content; or
  • use the Service for anything illegal.

10. Our intellectual property

The Service, including its software, design, kanji stories and mnemonics, the Yomidori name and the 通 mark, belongs to Zotic or its licensors and is protected by copyright and trademark law. Subject to these Terms, we give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app for your own non-commercial study.

Custom kanji stories you write (a Premium feature) are yours. You give us permission to store and sync them for you.

Yomidori is built on open data from others, including the JMdict and KANJIDIC dictionaries, Jitendex and KanjiVG, used under their licences (including Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike). Full credits and licence links are in the app under Settings → About and at yomidori.com/licenses. Material we derive from ShareAlike sources remains available under the same licence. This does not extend to the rest of the Service.

11. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party providers for things like app distribution and payments (Apple, Google), accounts and sync, hosting, analytics, crash reporting and AI processing. They are listed in our Privacy Policy. Their own terms may also apply when you use features that depend on them. We are not responsible for services we do not control.

12. Changes to the Service

We are continually improving Yomidori. We may add, change or remove features. If we discontinue the Service entirely, we will give at least 30 days' notice where reasonably possible.

13. Suspension and termination

You can stop using the Service at any time. To delete your account, go to Settings → Account → Delete account in the app, or email support@zotic.co.jp. Deleting your account permanently deletes the learning data stored in it. It does not cancel an app store subscription (see section 5.2).

We may suspend or end your access if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms, if the law or an app store requires us to, or if we discontinue the Service. Where reasonable, we will tell you first and explain why.

Sections 6.3, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16 and 17 continue to apply after termination.

14. Disclaimer

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we make no warranties, express or implied, including about merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or the accuracy of dictionary entries, AI output or third-party content. We do not promise the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or available in your region.

15. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, Zotic is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for loss of profits, data or goodwill. Our total liability to you for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for the Service in the 12 months before the claim, or ¥10,000.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for our intentional misconduct or gross negligence, or rights you have under mandatory consumer-protection law, such as Japan's Consumer Contract Act.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Japan. The Tokyo District Court has exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, except where mandatory consumer law gives you the right to bring a claim in the courts where you live.

Please contact us at support@zotic.co.jp first. Most problems can be resolved quickly that way.

17. General

  • Entire agreement: these Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
  • Severability: if any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies.
  • No waiver: if we do not enforce a provision, we can still enforce it later.
  • Assignment: you may not transfer these Terms. We may transfer them as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of our business.
  • App stores: Apple and Google are not parties to these Terms and are not responsible for the Service. If you got the app from the Apple App Store, Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app and, if you have an account, by email at least 14 days before it takes effect. If you keep using the Service after that date, the new Terms apply. If you do not agree to them, stop using the Service and delete your account.

19. Contact

Operator: Zotic GK (Zotic合同会社) Address: 402 Wizard Bldg., 1-4-3 Sengencho, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 220-0072, Japan Email: support@zotic.co.jp

These Terms are written in English. If a translation conflicts with the English version, the English version prevails.