How we check listings

Our status labels

• Halal-focused: the venue publicly presents its main offer as halal.
• Venue-declared halal: the claim comes from the business, not from HalalJP.
• Muslim-friendly: some suitable options may exist, but the whole kitchen is not represented as halal.
• Unknown: we do not have enough current information to make a stronger statement.

What “last checked” means

We reviewed the venue’s public information on that date. It does not promise that every ingredient, process or opening hour remains unchanged. Contact the venue when a detail is essential to your dietary practice.

Staff review is not certification

When we record a staff review date, we only note which public information we looked at. That note is separate from halal status and from any sponsored placement. HalalJP still does not issue certificates.

Where listings come from

Most listings are transcribed from published sources rather than gathered by us. Each listing page names its source and the date that source was read, so you can judge it yourself.

• Official tourism guides: prefectural and city bureaus publish Muslim-traveller guides. We transcribe the facts they print and nothing more.
• OpenStreetMap: an open map database maintained by volunteers, used under the Open Database Licence. A contributor’s halal tag is a community note, not certification, so these listings stay marked unknown.
• Our own checks: a small number of listings we have reviewed directly, which is recorded as a staff review date.

We do not copy listings from commercial directories or review sites, and we never infer a halal status, or a pork or alcohol fact, that a source did not state.

No paid verification

Commercial placement is labeled separately. Payment never creates a halal status, verification label or higher organic rank.