• Following approval by the Board of Directors in December 2025 and the General Assembly of Delegates in January 2026, the Astronomical Society of Japan (ASJ) will establish an external harassment consultation service in April 2026.
• Regular members, associate members, and office staff of the ASJ may seek consultation regarding harassment through the Japan Institute for Women's Empowerment & Diversity Management (https://www.jiwe.or.jp).
• The service accepts consultations from individuals who have experienced harassment. At present, the service does not functionasa whistleblowing or third-party reporting channel.
• The service accepts consultations regarding issues that occur in situations related to activities organized or operated by ASJ, including:
  • Issues arising during meetings and events organized by the Society (e.g., the Annual Meeting).
  • Issues arising in committee activities or within the ASJ office.
  • Issues that occur within individual universities or research institutions are expected to be addressed through the consultation systems established by those respective institutions.
• Protection of the complainant's personal information is given the highest priority.
• You may seek advice anonymously. Unless the complainant requests otherwise, no personal information will be reported to ASJ. Only statistical information (such as the number of consultations) will be reported.
• If the complainant requests a formal investigation, the consultation office will notify the President and Vice Presidents of theASJ, and the Executive Board will consider appropriate actions.
• ASJ will continue to review and improve the investigation framework and related procedures.
• At present, the consultation service accepts inquiries only in Japanese. If you are unable to use Japanese but wish to consult the service, please prepare a written description of your concernand translate it into Japanese. You may use translation software or similar tools for this. And then please contact the consultation service through the web-based system rather than by telephone.
• At present, complainants cannot request or choose the gender of the counselor at the consultation service.
• The username and password required to access the page describing how to submit a consultation will be announced on Tennet at the beginning of each fiscal year.
• If you have any questions regarding how to use the external consultation service, please feel free to contact the ASJ (Secretary-General: jimucho@asj.or.jp) at any time, either before or after seeking consultation.

Click here for information on how to use the service (ID and password are required).