Thorough investigation including genotypes
○ While there are many companies that handle genealogy research and family history compilation, our institute is the only one that conducts thorough research and compilation on each ancestor by performing genotype (haplogroup) analysis, interviews with relatives, and on-site field investigations.
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Ultra-high-resolution scanning
○ We scan photos at a higher resolution than professional photo shops. It is high enough to identify a family crest from a montsuki hakama in a 3cm square old photograph!
Industry exclusive: Access to the University of Tokyo General Library and Faculty of Letters Library as an alumnus
○ We can use and research the General Library, the Faculty of Letters Library and the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, the Library of the Keio University, and the Library of the Waseda University which hold numerous historical books and old documents, utilizing our status as alumni.
After-sales support
○ If new facts are discovered through any opportunity after delivery, we will report them to you free of charge.
Reasonable Fee system
Other companies offer a plan to trace a family’s lineage back 400 years, with a fixed fee of around ¥1 million and only a single on-site investigation over several days.
However, the distance between an ancestry research company’s headquarters and the on-site investigation site varies considerably, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, making a flat fee unfair and resulting in excessive charges being made to those closer to the headquarters.
You can’t know how long it will take to find an ancient document until you begin. Nevertheless, charging a fixed fee means a heavy burden on the client if the document is found quickly, and a lower fee for the company if it takes a long time. If the on-site site is far from the headquarters, it creates an incentive for the company to stop working early.
Even if the researcher gives up because it’s taking too long and isn’t worth the fee, they might still have found the ancestor if they had searched a little longer. In such cases, with a fixed fee system, it’s unlikely that an additional fee would be charged, and the client might end up giving up just one step away from finding their ancestor.
For this reason, we have decided to calculate fees based on an hourly rate plus actual expenses, and to divide the fee into stages so that the client can decide whether to continue the research.
This allows us to avoid charging too much for travel expenses for requests close to our headquarters, and allows us to provide research time and number of on-site visits according to your budget.
