Disclaimer
What this service is, and where it stops
This service does not indicate the likelihood of developing any disease, and makes no diagnosis or other medical judgement, on the basis of analysis results.
This service is not medical care, and it is not a substitute for a physician's diagnosis or prescription.
This service is provided from Japan and is governed by Japanese law. In Japan, diagnosis and other medical judgement are reserved to licensed physicians under Article 17 of the Medical Practitioners' Act, and the operator of this service is not one.
These English pages are provided for convenience. Where they differ from the Japanese pages, the Japanese text governs.
01 / What this service is
What this service provides is instruction in the technical procedure for reading genetic information, and general information about it. The aim is that you become able to work through your own data yourself.
The following are not done.
- Diagnosis, or any indication of the likelihood of developing a disease
- Assessment of your state of health based on your individual results
- Dietary, exercise or lifestyle advice based on your individual results
- Introduction of pharmaceuticals, health foods or supplements based on your individual results
- Questioning you about symptoms, condition or medication
02 / Seeing a medical institution
If you have concerns about your health, please consult a medical institution, whatever the reading shows.
If you are currently under a physician's care, or come to be, follow the instructions of your physician or other professional. Do not change or discontinue treatment on the basis of anything conveyed by this service.
If you want specialist advice about genetic information, please ask a medical institution with a certified genetic counsellor or a clinical geneticist.
03 / What a reading can and cannot show
Even whole-genome data contains regions that cannot be read. Short-read sequencing has difficulty detecting large deletions and duplications, repeat expansions, and regions closely similar in sequence to other genes — as a matter of principle, not of effort.
“No variant was found” does not mean “no variant exists.” Drawing that distinction is one of the first things covered.
Interpretation of genetic information is also rewritten as research advances. Anything conveyed through this service reflects the state of knowledge at the time. Reference databases and their versions are cited alongside so that the vintage of a statement can be checked later.
The accuracy and completeness of analysis results cannot be guaranteed absolutely.
04 / Handling of data
This service does not take custody of your genomic data.
The data stays in your hands and is handled in your own environment. I will never ask you to send it. I also do not run the analysis on your behalf.
Genomic data is by itself capable of identifying an individual. Stripping names and similar fields does not remove that identifiability. Results obtained from genetic testing also fall under “special care-required personal information” in Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information.
How far you entrust your own data to an outside service is yours to decide. Generative AI is genuinely useful in this work, and I will not tell you categorically not to use it.
There are things worth knowing before you decide. Whether what you enter is used for training, and where and for how long it is retained, differ between services — and can sometimes be changed in the settings. What has left your hands cannot be recalled. And genetic information is not yours alone; blood relatives share part of it.
How much you hand over also changes the picture. Asking about a particular rsID and genotype is not the same act as passing over the data file. How to make that judgement is covered concretely as part of the procedure.
05 / Data used for teaching
Exercises use standard datasets published openly for research purposes. They are chosen because the correct answers are public, so the procedure can be verified against them.
Parts of the operator's own data are also used at times to demonstrate a reading. What is shown is limited in scope.
06 / Notation based on the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions
The following is an English rendering of a disclosure required by Japanese law. The Japanese text on the Japanese page is the operative version.
- Seller
- Keita Kobayashi
- Trade name
- Decipher the Map
- Address
- Disclosed without delay upon request
- Telephone
- Disclosed without delay upon request
- Contact
- kkoba@DecipherTheMap.com
- Price
- Quoted individually according to the content and scope of the request. The amount is presented before you place an order
- Additional costs
- Bank transfer fees are borne by the customer. Communication charges and the cost of your own computing environment and storage are not included
- Payment method
- Bank transfer
- Payment timing
- Payable in full after ordering and before the service begins
- Delivery timing
- Begins on a schedule agreed individually, after payment is confirmed
- Cancellation and refunds
- Refunded in full if you withdraw before the service begins. No refund is available once it has begun
- Required environment
- Storage and a connection able to handle files in the tens of gigabytes. See the process page for details
The address and telephone number will be disclosed without delay, in writing or by email, upon request from a customer. Please write to the contact address above if you would like them.
07 / Revisions
These statements are revised as laws and guidelines change and as the service changes. A history of revisions is retained.
Where the English and Japanese pages differ, the Japanese text governs.
Last updated 10 August 2026