https://decode-japan.com/changes/ Dated changes to the guides, the Tokyo bar directory and the Japanese rules this site tracks — including reviews that found nothing had moved. en Sat, 19 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT https://decode-japan.com/tools/tax-free-refund/ decode-japan:2026-09-19-tax-free-tool Sat, 19 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Five conditions decide whether the consumption tax reaches you after 1 November 2026 — including the customs confirmation that has to happen before you check your bags. Static, and it collects nothing. https://decode-japan.com/reference/tokyo-bar-rules/ decode-japan:2026-09-19-tokyo-bar-reference Sat, 19 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Ten pages on what a Tokyo bar may add to your bill, what it has to accept when you pay, who may not be let in, and why it is still open at two in the morning. US$12, or US$29 with the whisky label reference. https://decode-japan.com/tools/tokyo-bar-bill/ decode-japan:2026-09-12-bar-bill-tool Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT A static table built from the twenty-six recorded bars: what each one charges to sit down, what a service charge adds to a bill, and which bars take a card. No account, no input collected, and nothing to run in the browser. https://decode-japan.com/changes/ decode-japan:2026-09-12-change-log-and-feed Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Every dated change to the guides, the directory and the rules they track is now published on one page with an RSS feed, so following the site no longer requires giving it an email address. https://decode-japan.com/map/ decode-japan:2026-09-12-sixteen-more-bars Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The Tokyo directory grew from ten recorded bars to twenty-six, each with its own page and a dated record of what it charges and what it accepts. https://decode-japan.com/guides/japanese-whisky-label-rules/ decode-japan:2026-09-12-three-watched-documents-moved Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The weekly source check flagged edits to a House of Councillors written answer, a Seven Bank page and the spirits association's labelling page. All three were navigation changes rather than changes to the text this site relies on — but the association had added a page on the Japanese whisky logo mark, which is now cited and has sharpened what the whisky guide says about it. https://decode-japan.com/guides/japan-tax-free-refund-2026/ decode-japan:guide-japan-tax-free-refund-2026 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT From 1 November 2026 a tax-free shop in Japan charges you the tax-inclusive price and refunds the consumption tax after customs confirms, at departure, that the goods are leaving with you. What you have to do differently, and where the refund can still be lost. https://decode-japan.com/guides/japanese-whisky-label-rules/ decode-japan:review-japanese-whisky-label-rules-2026-09-12 Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Every claim on this page was checked against the primary documents it cites. Where the documents had not moved, nothing on the page changed — which is what the review date is asserting. https://decode-japan.com/map/ decode-japan:2026-08-22-first-ten-bars Sat, 22 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Ten bars, each visited and paid for in person, with the cover charge, accepted payment methods, seating, door rules and opening hours recorded on the date of the visit. Each one also got its own page with an illustration of the walk from the station. https://decode-japan.com/reference/ decode-japan:2026-08-06-reference-on-sale Thu, 06 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT The thirteen-page reference became purchasable at US$24, with the PDF delivered immediately after a Stripe-hosted checkout. https://decode-japan.com/changes/#2026-08-06-watched-documents-moved decode-japan:2026-08-06-watched-documents-moved Thu, 06 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT The weekly source check flagged edits to a Kyodo PR Wire release and two Metropolitan Police pages. All three turned out to be changes to navigation and related-links blocks, not to the rules the guides rely on. https://decode-japan.com/updates/ decode-japan:2026-08-03-two-email-lists Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Rule Alerts (a sourced change to a rule tracked here) and Field Notes (a new guide, tool or material revision) became separate double opt-in subscriptions. Joining one never joins the other. https://decode-japan.com/guides/junmai-ginjo-daiginjo-sake-labels/ decode-japan:guide-junmai-ginjo-daiginjo-sake-labels Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT The eight regulated sake designations are not a simple quality ladder. Here is what the rice-polishing percentage, added alcohol and “special” wording establish—and what they leave open. https://decode-japan.com/guides/buying-and-flying-home-with-whisky/ decode-japan:review-buying-and-flying-home-with-whisky-2026-08-03 Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Every claim on this page was checked against the primary documents it cites. Where the documents had not moved, nothing on the page changed — which is what the review date is asserting. https://decode-japan.com/guides/ decode-japan:2026-08-01-indexed-and-listed Sat, 01 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Sitemaps submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and new pages now notify Bing through IndexNow on every deploy. https://decode-japan.com/guides/buying-a-bottle-from-a-tokyo-bar/ decode-japan:guide-buying-a-bottle-from-a-tokyo-bar Sat, 01 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT A bar can pour you a glass of something you will never find at home. Selling you the bottle is a different licence, and most bars do not hold it. The rule turns on where the drink will be consumed, not on what is in it. https://decode-japan.com/guides/paying-cash-in-tokyo-bars/ decode-japan:guide-paying-cash-in-tokyo-bars Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Japanese currency law says what counts as money, not who has to accept it. Bank of Japan notes are legal tender without limit and coins only twenty per denomination — and the government has confirmed it does not require any business to accept cash, which is the same reason none has to accept your card. https://decode-japan.com/guides/tokyo-bars-after-midnight/ decode-japan:guide-tokyo-bars-after-midnight Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT A bar serving alcohol after midnight files a notification. A venue dimmer than ten lux, or seating you where you cannot be seen, or whose staff sit down with you, needs a licence instead — and a licensed venue must close at midnight. That is why the bar still pouring at two in the morning looks the way it does. https://decode-japan.com/guides/buying-and-flying-home-with-whisky/ decode-japan:guide-buying-and-flying-home-with-whisky Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT An aviation rule caps what you may fly home with and bans anything over 70% ABV outright. From 1 November 2026 the tax refund is collected at the airport, before your bags are checked. Both matter before you buy, not after. https://decode-japan.com/guides/japanese-whisky-age-statements/ decode-japan:guide-japanese-whisky-age-statements Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT A number of years on a Japanese whisky label has a defined meaning and refers to the youngest spirit in the blend. The English words printed beside it — deluxe, reserve, select — have no defined meaning at all, and the industry code says so explicitly. https://decode-japan.com/guides/japanese-whisky-label-rules/ decode-japan:guide-japanese-whisky-label-rules Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT The labelling standard that decides what may be called Japanese whisky is voluntary, not law. Here is what it requires, what the JSLMA mark means, and which words on a label tell you nothing at all. https://decode-japan.com/guides/japanese-whisky-type-names/ decode-japan:guide-japanese-whisky-type-names Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Single malt has a real definition on a Japanese label. Blended has a wider one than you would expect — the industry glossary puts malt-and-grain blends and heavily alcohol-extended whisky under the same word. https://decode-japan.com/guides/reading-a-japanese-whisky-back-label/ decode-japan:guide-reading-a-japanese-whisky-back-label Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Japanese law requires five things on a bottle of whisky. An ingredient list is not one of them, and the word ウイスキー can legally be applied to a bottle that is nine-tenths added alcohol. Here is how to read the block of small print. https://decode-japan.com/guides/smoking-in-tokyo-bars/ decode-japan:guide-smoking-in-tokyo-bars Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT Tokyo bars are smoke-free in principle, but a transitional exemption still lets some allow smoking indoors. In Tokyo the exemption applies only to bars with no employees at all — and where the whole bar is a smoking room, nobody under 20 may enter. https://decode-japan.com/guides/tokyo-bar-cover-charges/ decode-japan:guide-tokyo-bar-cover-charges Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT A Tokyo bar can add a cover charge, a seating fee, a small dish you did not order and a service percentage. Japanese law obliges a venue to display a tax-inclusive price only if it displays a price at all — which is the whole reason you cannot find out in advance.