Terms of Use

Kifuku 起伏 · version 1.0 · last updated: 6 September 2026

What this app is

Kifuku 起伏 is a tool for learning Japanese pitch accent. It teaches the Tokyo standard — the accent of dictionaries, broadcasting and textbooks. It is one standard of Japanese, not the only one: in Kansai many of these words carry a different accent, and that is not a mistake in either direction. The app says so on its own screens.

Purchase

Levels 1 and 2 are free in full. One non-consumable purchase unlocks levels 3 to 5. There is no subscription. The purchase is handled by Apple under App Store terms, and any refund goes through Apple.

Third-party content

The app carries accent data from UniDic (NINJAL) under the BSD licence, and pronunciation recordings from the Tofugu and WaniKani project under CC BY-SA 4.0. The recordings are embedded without modifying the files, as a selected subset. Full licence notices and attribution are inside the app, on the "Sources" screen. Rights to those materials belong to their authors.

What the app does not promise

Accent can have more than one accepted value, and descriptions differ between dictionaries. The app shows, for every rule, how often it holds — precisely so that it does not promise a law without exceptions. It is not language advice and not preparation for any examination.

Liability

The app is provided as it is. I do what I can to keep the data correct, but I am not liable for decisions made on the basis of it.

Contact

Questions, bugs and objections to the content go to the address in the footer. A report naming the specific word and what you think is wrong is the fastest route to a fix.