# jp-drone-airspace

> Pre-check (partial coverage, not a go/no-go): which Japanese drone flight rules may apply at this point, time and height? Hosted MCP and HTTP: checks densely inhabited districts (2020), 150 m, night, airport vicinity screening, Small UAS Act facilities and MLIT emergency airspace, then gives the flight category and whether permission may be needed, with a source receipt per check. Free. Reference only: uncertain results say check DIPS; no applications prepared.

Data sources: MLIT National Land Numerical Information - Densely Inhabited Districts (A16, 2020 census) and Airports (C28, 2021) (commercial use allowed with attribution and processing note); GSI elevation tiles (GSI content terms, PDL 1.0); MLIT drone flight rules page (emergency-operation airspace status, polled at most every 15 minutes); NPA list of facilities under the Small UAS Prohibition Act with approximate points from the GSI Maps red-zone layer. Processed by MK Career Planning; not an official service of MLIT, NPA, GSI or the Government of Japan.
Reference information only, per the rules and data checked by this service. Not a legal opinion, not a permission or approval, not a document for submission to any authority, and not a statement about the conditions of any flight. Results can be wrong or out of date. Before every flight confirm with DIPS (MLIT), GSI Maps, the NPA and the MLIT emergency-operation airspace page. Not an official service of MLIT, NPA, GSI or the Government of Japan.
Statuses: applies / does_not_apply (per the data checked), possible_check_required (near a boundary or only screened), unknown (not determinable here). Any uncertain check makes permission_needed possibly_required_check_DIPS.
Airport surfaces are not computed (distance screen only) and the Drone Act facility table is not exhaustive, so these two checks never return does_not_apply.
Emergency-operation airspace: the answer states what the MLIT page said and when; always check immediately before flight.
Information only: this service does not prepare permission applications or documents for submission (Administrative Scrivener Act Art. 19).

## Connect

- MCP (streamable HTTP): https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/mcp
- OpenAPI: https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/openapi.json
- x402 discovery: https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/.well-known/x402

## Quickstart

- Developer quickstart (MCP client configs, free curl/TypeScript calls, how to read statuses, category and permission_needed): https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/quickstart

## Free tools

- catalog: List the tools of this server with prices, data sources, licensing, daily limits and data freshness.
- drone_flight_check: Which Japanese drone rules apply at this point, time and height? Returns applies / does_not_apply / possible_check_required / unknown per check (DID 2020, 150 m, night, airport screening, Small UAS Act facilities, MLIT emergency airspace, flight methods, 25 kg), the category (I/II/III/unknown) and permission_needed, with a receipt per check. Reference only; uncertain = check DIPS; no applications prepared.
- drone_rule_table: Which rules and thresholds does drone_flight_check use? Returns the rule table (specified flight triggers under Civil Aeronautics Act Art. 132-85/86, which can be waived with certificates), category definitions, screening radii and their basis, the review guideline version and sources. Reference only.
- get_receipt: Re-fetch the stored result of a settled paid call by its receipt_id, for when the response was lost after payment. Free. Unknown or unsettled receipt ids return RECEIPT_NOT_FOUND. Results are kept for 90 days after settlement.
- HTTP: GET/POST https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/v1/drone/check, GET https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/v1/drone/rules return the same data as the MCP tools. GET https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/v1/receipts/<receipt_id> is get_receipt.

## Payments

This server offers free tools only. It does not request or accept x402 payments.

## Rate limits

- Free calls (free HTTP endpoints under /v1/ and free MCP tools) are limited to 300 requests per 60 seconds per client (a client is keyed by a one-way hash of its IP address and the first 64 characters of its User-Agent; neither is stored. The User-Agent can be set by anyone, so this split is for fairness between clients behind a shared gateway, not a security control). Over the limit, HTTP returns 429 RATE_LIMITED with a Retry-After header and MCP tools return the error RATE_LIMITED. Paid calls are not rate limited.

## Provenance and fetch_status

Responses carry provenance[] (source, upstream_updated_at, retrieved_at, content_sha256, parser_version, fetch_status). fetch_status values:

- found: The upstream document was retrieved and contains the data used for this answer.
- empty: The upstream was retrieved, but it has no item for this query (for example JMA had no bulletin for that area in its feeds, or the municipality is not in the list). The state is unknown: empty does NOT mean 'none in effect'.
- stale: The data was retrieved but is older than the freshness threshold for its kind; treat it with care.
- unavailable: The upstream could not be retrieved, read or used (network error, withdrawn bulletin, paused source, or data not yet loaded).
- unsupported: The query is outside what this source covers (for example a date JMA does not issue warnings for yet, or a period before the source's records).

## Errors

- RECEIPT_NOT_FOUND (get_receipt)
- RATE_LIMITED (free calls over the per-client limit; HTTP 429 with Retry-After; not charged)

## Terms

- category: I / II / III / unknown per the checked rules. category_if_uncertain_checks_clear tells what it would be if the uncertain checks are confirmed clear.
- permission_needed: not_required_per_checked_rules / required / possibly_required_check_DIPS.
- Rule logic reviewed by a holder of a Japanese 2nd-class remote pilot certificate (operator: MK Career Planning).

## Privacy and support

- Operator: MK Career Planning
- Terms of Service: https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/terms
- Privacy policy: https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/privacy
- Support (free): https://jp-drone-airspace-production.mk-career-planning.workers.dev/support (mk.career.planning@gmail.com)