This Privacy Policy explains how Arbitra (operated by Doctors Inc., "we," "our," "us") collects, uses, shares, and protects your personal information when you visit our website or use our medical coordination services.
We are a Japan-incorporated company providing cross-border medical coordination services to residents of the United States. Because we are based in Japan but serve US residents, this policy is designed to satisfy both United States privacy laws (including state-level laws in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Florida, and others) and Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI).
Trade name: Arbitra
Operating entity: Doctors Inc. (ドクターズ株式会社) · Japan
US entity: Doctors Holdings, Inc. · 222 Broadway, Floor 22, New York, NY 10038
Japan address: PMO Hamamatsucho II 5F, 2-3-6 Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0011, Japan
Representative: Dr. Takao Yanagawa, MD — Neurosurgeon, President and CEO
Contact:
Privacy contact: arbitra-info@doctors-inc.jp
Date of establishment: September 26, 2016 (Arbitra service launched 2026)
We are a medical coordination service operating under Doctors Inc. (Japan) and Doctors Holdings, Inc. (New York, USA), founded and led by board-certified neurosurgeon Dr. Takao Yanagawa, MD. We are not a licensed healthcare provider, hospital, clinic, or medical professional. We connect US residents with independent Japanese hospitals and physicians.
If you proceed beyond the initial inquiry, we will request additional information at the moment it becomes necessary, with separate disclosures and consent at each step:
Some of this information is sensitive personal information under both US state laws and Japan's APPI. We collect such data only with your explicit, informed consent at the time it is requested, and only to the extent necessary to coordinate your care.
We use the information we collect for the following specific purposes (our stated purpose of use under APPI):
We will not use your personal information for purposes materially different from those listed above without first notifying you and, where required by law, obtaining your consent.
To provide our coordination service, we share relevant medical and personal information with our Japanese hospital partners. This sharing requires your explicit consent and is requested at the time we are ready to send your case to a specific hospital — not at the registration stage.
We use the following categories of third-party service providers, each of whom is contractually bound to protect your information and use it only for the services they provide to us:
| Function | Provider | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Website hosting | Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Japan |
| Analytics | Google Analytics | Japan |
| Email delivery | Gmail (Google Workspace) | Japan |
We may disclose your information when required by law, court order, or government request; to protect the safety of any person; to investigate fraud or violations of our terms; or in connection with a corporate transaction (merger, acquisition, asset sale) where we will require the recipient to honor this policy.
We do not sell your personal information to third parties for monetary consideration, and we do not engage in cross-context behavioral advertising or "share" personal information for targeted advertising in the manner defined by California's CCPA/CPRA. See your rights below.
Because we are a Japanese company providing services to US residents, your personal information will be transferred across international borders.
When you submit information through our website, your data may be received and stored on servers located in Japan, the United States, or both. By using our service, you understand that your information will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy regardless of where it is stored.
Our service providers are primarily Japan-based. However, two recipients are incorporated in the United States, which constitutes a cross-border transfer under APPI Article 28:
Health information is treated as sensitive personal information under US state privacy laws and as sensitive personal information under APPI Article 17.
We are not a HIPAA "covered entity" (we are not a healthcare provider, health plan, or healthcare clearinghouse) and we are not generally a HIPAA "business associate." HIPAA's protections therefore do not directly apply to most of the information we hold. Health information we receive is protected by the security measures described in Section 11 of this policy and by your rights as described in Sections 8 and 9.
If you are a Washington State resident, you have specific rights regarding your "consumer health data," including the right to confirm whether we are collecting it, the right to access and delete it, and the right to withdraw consent. We do not sell consumer health data and do not use geofencing around healthcare facilities.
If you are a Nevada resident, you have similar rights under Nevada's consumer health data law. We do not sell your consumer health data.
Several states have specific provisions for health data within their general privacy laws. Your rights under these laws apply automatically and are described in Section 9.
We use the following types of cookies and similar technologies:
You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect site functionality.
Regardless of which US state you live in, you have the following rights:
To exercise any of these rights, email arbitra-info@doctors-inc.jp. We will verify your identity before responding and aim to respond within 45 days (with one 45-day extension if necessary, as permitted by law).
California residents have the rights listed in Section 8, plus:
We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising under the CCPA/CPRA. We have not done so in the prior 12 months.
Residents of these states have substantially the same rights as listed in Section 8. Some states additionally provide a right to appeal a denial of your request — you may exercise this right by replying to our denial email or contacting us at the address below.
Before responding to a rights request, we will ask you to verify your identity (typically by confirming information you have already provided, such as the email address used to submit your inquiry). We do this to protect your information from unauthorized access.
Because we are a Japanese company, Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (個人情報の保護に関する法律, "APPI") applies to our handling of your data, regardless of where you live. The disclosures below summarize our APPI obligations in English; a Japanese-language version is available here.
Under APPI Article 32, we are required to make the following items "knowable" to data subjects regarding retained personal data:
We do not collect sensitive personal information (including medical history) without your explicit, prior consent. At the LP/registration stage, we do not collect such information; we collect only general procedure interest. Sensitive medical information is collected only at later engagement stages, with specific consent at that time.
We provide your personal data to third parties (specifically, Japanese hospital partners) only with your prior consent. Provision to service providers acting as our processors does not require separate consent under APPI but is subject to our oversight and contractual data protection obligations.
See Section 5.2 above. Cross-border transfers are limited to our US affiliate (Doctors Holdings, Inc.) and Google LLC (parent of our analytics and email providers). Contractual data protection measures are in place with both.
To the extent we share cookie identifiers, IP addresses, or similar information with third parties who may combine them with personal data, we obtain consent or rely on appropriate legal grounds as required by APPI Article 31.
We implement organizational, physical, and technical security measures designed to protect your personal information, including:
No method of internet transmission or electronic storage is 100% secure. We will notify you of a security breach affecting your personal information as required by applicable US state law and APPI's breach notification requirements (Article 26).
We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including:
When personal information is no longer needed for these purposes, we will delete or anonymize it.
Our services are not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have collected information from a person under 18, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a child has provided us with information, please contact us at the address below.
For privacy-related questions, data requests, or complaints, please visit our Contact page.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may also contact an independent authority:
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page with a new "Last Updated" date. For material changes, we will notify you by email at least 30 days before the change takes effect, where practical.