Methodology
A price is useful only when its evidence survives inspection.
JapanMood separates official facts, derived calculations, and unknowns. The goal is not to force a confident answer; it is to publish the strongest answer the evidence can support.
Current research last verified Sep 2, 2026
Official sources first
Canonical retail prices come from the brand’s official store for that market. Marketplace listings, reseller prices, blogs, forums, and travel articles are not presented as official retail facts.
Exact product matching
A product family name is not enough. We compare style number or SKU, colorway, material, gender designation, market, and official URL wherever the source exposes them.
FX and derived savings
A savings calculation requires an exact product match, official prices on both sides, a credible FX source and timestamp, and sufficiently understood tax treatment. If any input is missing, prices may be displayed as evidence but a precise saving is withheld.
Tax is conditional, not a coupon
National tax-free rules are sourced from the Japan Tourism Agency. JapanMood does not assume that every store participates or that every traveler and purchase qualifies. A tax-inclusive shelf price is never silently reduced.
Freshness and change monitoring
“Last verified” changes only after the underlying fact is checked. Daily monitors can identify a candidate change, but malformed source HTML fails closed and no detected change automatically overwrites public data.