A florist's version of a privacy policy
Solar Aster is a small flower shop in Naritanishi, Suginami. Most of what we know about you fits on an order slip: who the flowers are for, where they are going, what the card should say. This page explains what happens to that slip, and to the rest of what you tell us, under Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI). It is deliberately short on legal phrasing and long on the details that matter in a flower shop.
What an order gives us
When you order by phone, by email or through the form on this site we take your name, a contact number or email, the delivery address and, if you are sending flowers to someone else, their name and address too. We also keep the wording of the card message, the delivery date and any notes you give us — a gate code, 'leave with the neighbour', 'she is allergic to lilies'. For subscriptions we add the delivery day you chose and a billing contact. For weddings we usually hold a longer brief: venue, timings, colour direction, the names of the people carrying bouquets.
The person receiving the flowers
A gift order means we hold personal information about someone who has not spoken to us at all. We treat the recipient's name and address as strictly delivery information. It is written on the delivery sheet, used to get the flowers to the door, and not used for anything else — no follow-up card from the shop, no 'someone sent you flowers, would you like to order too'. If a recipient asks who sent the flowers we only say so if the sender agreed to a signed card; anonymous orders stay anonymous.
What we do with it
Order details are used to make and deliver the arrangement, to invoice you and to answer questions about the order afterwards. Alan keeps a paper delivery book and a simple spreadsheet; that is the extent of our customer database. We look back at previous orders only when a returning customer asks us to 'do something like last time'. We do not profile, we do not run automated marketing, and we do not send seasonal promotions unless you have specifically asked to hear about them.
Subscription billing
Weekly and fortnightly subscriptions are billed monthly by bank transfer or by a card payment link sent by email. Card numbers are never typed into anything we own; the payment link goes to the card processor and we only see whether the payment cleared. Pausing or cancelling with seven days' notice removes you from the delivery book; we keep the billing record for the statutory period noted below and nothing else.
Who else sees it
Very few people. Alan and one part-time assistant on busy weeks. The card payment processor, for subscription and wedding payments. Our email provider, because email has to live somewhere. On the rare day a wedding needs a second van we use a local courier, who receives the venue address and a contact number for the day and nothing more. We do not sell, rent or swap customer lists with anyone, including other florists and the wholesale market we buy from.
Photographs of arrangements
We photograph most arrangements before they leave the shop, partly for our own records and partly for this website and social media. Those photographs show flowers, not people or addresses. If a wedding photograph would show a guest or a venue name we ask the couple before using it, and we take it down if asked.
How long we keep things
Order and delivery details for one-off orders: twelve months, so we can help with a repeat order or a complaint. Wedding briefs: twelve months after the wedding. Subscription records: for the life of the subscription plus twelve months. Invoices and payment records: seven years, as required by Japanese tax law. Enquiries that never become an order are deleted after three months.
Your rights
You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or ask us to stop using it for a particular purpose. Recipients of flowers have the same rights over their own details. Write to hello@solar-aster.com or telephone +81 3-3311-7688 during shop hours; we may ask a question or two to confirm it is really you. We reply within ten working days and there is no charge.
Keeping it safe
The order spreadsheet lives on a password-protected computer in the shop, the delivery book stays in the shop, and card payments never touch either. If we ever lose or leak your information we will tell you and, where the law requires, the Personal Information Protection Commission, promptly.
Company details
Solar Aster · florist, Naritanishi, Suginami · trading since 2017 · business operator: Alan Silverwood · last revised 7 September 2026