Comment Policy

1. Purpose

The Japan Local Voices comment section is a place to discuss the Japanese internet reactions featured in our articles. We aim to keep it thoughtful, civil, and on-topic.

2. What We Encourage

• •Asking genuine questions about Japanese culture, language, or the context of a translated comment.
• •Sharing your own perspective on the topic in a respectful way.
• •Pointing out translation inaccuracies or missing cultural context.
• •Friendly debate, even on controversial topics, as long as it stays civil.

3. What We Do Not Allow

• •Hate speech, slurs, or content targeting individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or disability.
• •Impersonation of other commenters, public figures, or Japan Local Voices staff.
• •Spam, commercial solicitation, or unsolicited referral links.
• •Personal information about real, identifiable individuals (doxxing).
• •Off-topic content unrelated to the article.
• •Coordinated manipulation or vote brigading.

4. Privacy in Comments

• •The name field is optional. Do not enter your full legal name or any personal information you would not share publicly.
• •The posting country is optional and shown publicly next to your comment. It defaults to your approximate location (auto-detected at submit, not from a stored IP); you can change it to any country or choose “Prefer not to say” to show none.
• •We do not store your raw IP address. We store a daily-rotating anonymous ID (anon_id) derived from a one-way hash of your IP, used to display a pseudonym within a thread.
• •Your IP address is subject to automatic rate limiting: a maximum of 5 comments per 10 minutes per IP.
• •An automated word filter is in place. Comments containing prohibited terms are rejected at submission with an error message. This is disclosed here per our Privacy Policy.

5. Moderation

• •Comments violating this policy may be removed without notice.
• •Repeat offenders may have their IP address blocked from posting.
• •We do not currently have real-time human moderation. If you see a comment that violates this policy, please use the report form to notify us.
• •Moderation decisions are at our sole discretion.

6. Reporting a Comment

To report a comment that violates this policy, use our report form with the article URL, the post number (e.g., >>12), and a short description. We review reports as soon as we can.

7. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as the community grows. The "Last Updated" date reflects the most recent revision.