# JAN Japan Release & Delay Checks — Beta (`amycole/jan-japan-release-delay-checks-beta`) Actor

Reconcile JAN-coded order rows against official Good Smile Japan release schedules and delay notices. Returns dated evidence, repeat-delay history, manual change suggestions and unresolved review tasks. Beta; does not guarantee current schedules or overseas arrivals.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/amycole/jan-japan-release-delay-checks-beta.md
- **Developed by:** [amycole](https://apify.com/amycole) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Good Smile Japan JAN Release & Delay Order Checks — Beta

Give this Actor the JANs and row IDs from your preorder sheet. It returns the Japanese dispatch/release evidence, published old→new changes and a manual-review queue, so you can check many orders without searching each product name again.

**Public beta: synthetic 20-row workflows and a six-row first-use sample have been verified on Apify. There is no additional Actor fee; users pay ordinary Apify platform usage. External API and hosted MCP smoke tests remain pending.**

### Supported scope

- Good Smile's public Japanese and English release calendars and schedule announcements only.
- Published release-month delays/advances, explicitly marked Japanese dispatch-date changes, and named release cancellations.
- Optional public Japanese monthly summaries supplement the requested notice history. Summary scope is separate from the linked notice range.
- Month, Japanese dispatch day, wholesaler arrival day and release day have different meanings. None is an overseas delivery estimate.

This is an evidence/review tool: it does not verify your order's preorder batch, certify the current schedule, auto-update orders or prove that no change exists. `automaticUpdateAllowed` is always false, `announcementHistoryComplete` is false and `nextCursor` is null. A missing JAN, incomplete history, conflicting language/batch evidence or failed source remains explicit.

### First run: six representative order rows

The prefilled input demonstrates dispatch correction, three successive delays, a Japanese-only month change, a month advance, a batch ambiguity and an unresolved cancellation. It includes the requested notice lookback and monthly supplement, so the value is not reduced to a latest-page search. Copy the example, run it, open **Order rows dataset**, then read **Full evidence JSON**, **Manual review queue** and the CSV downloads. Replace the sample JANs, row IDs and lookback dates with your own orders afterwards.

JANs must be strings and `clientItemId` must be unique. `knownSchedule.kind` must describe the date in your sheet: a dispatch day cannot be compared as a release month. Without a baseline, the Actor can still return evidence but cannot suggest an old-to-new transition.

#### Example input

```json
{
  "items": [
    {"clientItemId": "demo-dispatch-correction", "jan": "4580828671478", "knownSchedule": {"value": "2026-09-18", "kind": "japan_dispatch"}},
    {"clientItemId": "demo-sophia-three-delays", "jan": "4570001514623", "knownSchedule": {"value": "2026-07", "kind": "japan_release_month"}},
    {"clientItemId": "demo-japanese-only-delay", "jan": "4595055216910", "knownSchedule": {"value": "2026-06", "kind": "japan_release_month"}},
    {"clientItemId": "demo-month-advance", "jan": "4580522750325", "knownSchedule": {"value": "2026-10", "kind": "japan_release_month"}},
    {"clientItemId": "demo-second-preorder", "jan": "6977459540118", "knownSchedule": {"value": "2027-01", "kind": "japan_release_month"}},
    {"clientItemId": "synthetic-cancel-4580717791256", "jan": "4580717791256", "knownSchedule": {"value": "2026-10", "kind": "japan_release_month"}}
  ],
  "historySince": "2026-09-01",
  "maxHistoryPagesPerLanguage": 80,
  "monthlyHistorySince": "2026-05-01",
  "maxMonthlySummaryPages": 3,
  "noticeUrls": ["https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/6917"],
  "cacheMaxAgeSeconds": 3600
}
```

These are synthetic order rows using real catalogue identifiers, not customer orders. The dates are a reproducible historical example, not rolling production defaults. For your workflow, set `historySince` to the needed inclusive **announcement publication date**, and a sufficient `maxHistoryPagesPerLanguage`. `since` only filters returned notifications. An old release month does not identify the necessary lookback by itself. Omitting `historySince` gives a latest-index diagnostic run; empty events in that mode do not mean there was no delay.

### Outputs and next actions

| Output | Use |
| --- | --- |
| `orders.csv` / dataset | Join to your order sheet by `clientItemId`. Read action, baseline, typed published target, timeline, review IDs and source URLs. |
| `REVIEW_QUEUE` / `reviews.csv` | Inspect each shared notice/source review once, then follow its linked order row IDs. |
| `OUTPUT` | Full evidence, source/date/budget coverage, unresolved notices and state commit status. Required even when the order CSV has useful results. |
| `RUN_REPORT` | Application resource/I/O measurements. Not an invoice or verified execution price. |

A `publishedChangeSuggestion` is a unique chronological transition from your supplied typed baseline in the **checked published facts**. It remains a manual suggestion, not the currently valid date. Ambiguous branches, conflicting evidence, missing baseline or a mismatched date meaning yield no suggestion.

Cancellation notice 7038 does not contain JANs. The queue supplies four curated retailer catalogue identity hints recorded on 2026-10-08, with product names and URLs, only while the notice's exact names/date/old month match the recorded facts. These are not fetched retailer prices or official JAN cancellation matches. Confirm the original notice and your product/edition manually. Unmatched JANs are not certified unaffected. New named cancellations still appear in the queue without guessing a JAN.

### Repeated calls and manual source reviews

For repeated calls, use your own dedicated `stateStoreName` and run sequentially. This preserves public-source facts, source cache and identity bindings. Same-store concurrent cloud runs are unsupported. Omit the name to use stateless runs.

The caller maintains **cumulative** `seenEventIds` and `seenChangeIds` after successfully handling notifications. `observedEventIds` contains this run's returned, unprocessed IDs, not the full ledger; a later empty list must not replace your saved acknowledgment list. Fetching evidence does not mark an order updated.

Source facts that changed/disappeared create a separate review. `seenChangeIds` acknowledges receipt but does not close that review. After inspecting a finding, submit:

```json
{
  "sourceReviewResolutions": [
    {"changeId": "<finding.changeId>", "reviewToken": "<finding.reviewToken>", "decision": "source_change_reviewed"}
  ]
}
```

Add this to your normal input and reuse the same state store. Tokens are bound to checked facts. A stale token or unavailable source is rejected; later changed/missing facts reopen or retain the review. The resulting decision applies only to this source review: cancellation identity, independent conflicts and incomplete history remain unresolved. Resolution outcomes/audit are returned in the queue. Confirm successful state saving in `OUTPUT.coverage.state` before relying on persistence.

### Practical boundaries

This is an independent tool, not an official Good Smile service and not endorsed by Good Smile. Official source terms retain intellectual-property rights and do not grant a content-reuse license. The outputs identify products and scheduling facts with source links; they do not distribute page HTML, product imagery or logos. Any internal public-page cache is for sequential source checks, not a public content archive. `robots.txt` permission is a technical crawl signal, not a license. Recheck source terms before expanding reuse or distributing a bulk historical data product.

Keep private customer details out of the input; only order row IDs, JANs and Japanese baseline dates are needed. Inputs/results remain in your Apify run storage; do not publish sample output containing real customer identifiers. The named state contains public source facts rather than an order database.

The Actor uses allowlisted public sources, checks robots, limits request size/intervals and stops or reports failures rather than solving login/CAPTCHA or silently using expired sources. TTL cache hits are not fresh HTTP reads. `cacheMaxAgeSeconds: 0` requests source revalidation. Source changes may require maintenance.

In private tests on 2026-10-09, a 20-row synthetic batch with September linked history and May monthly summaries took about 104 seconds on first retrieval, 4 seconds with fresh cache, and 103 seconds with forced source revalidation. Console displayed approximately $0.004, $0.001 and $0.004 in platform usage respectively (rounded; excludes timed storage and future reads). These are test observations, not Store prices, guarantees or final invoices. There is no additional Actor fee; ordinary platform usage is charged by Apify. Longer history requires more source work; no per-JAN cost or maximum commercial batch size is claimed yet.

### API and AI/MCP use

Use the asynchronous Apify run endpoint, then wait for `SUCCEEDED` and retrieve the run's `OUTPUT` and `REVIEW_QUEUE` key-value records alongside the dataset/CSVs. A dataset alone omits run-level source failures and unresolved notices. Send your token in the `Authorization` header, keep it in your client environment and never include it in a URL or a shared prompt. The documented API workflow is prepared; a separate authenticated external API smoke test is still pending.

For MCP, connect your client to the hosted [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com) using its OAuth flow. Use the Actor's exact slug `amycole/jan-japan-release-delay-checks-beta` and fetch its schema before calling it. The Actor is public; authenticate your API/MCP client with your own Apify account to run it and read your private results. Ask the agent to preserve JAN strings, row IDs, typed baselines, `coverage`, manual-review tasks and cumulative acknowledgment IDs. Never instruct it to treat `incomplete_history`, `not_listed` or an empty notification list as unchanged, or to overwrite order dates automatically. `call-actor` returns status and storage IDs and waits at most 45 seconds, so a cold history run may still be running. Poll `get-actor-run` until `SUCCEEDED`; do not start a duplicate. Then use `get-dataset-items` and `get-key-value-store-record` to read `OUTPUT` and `REVIEW_QUEUE`. Put run limits in `callOptions`, not in the Actor input. Hosted MCP authentication and an actual Actor call have not yet been verified for this beta.

An appropriate request is: “Check these preorder rows against Good Smile Japan notices since this date. Return the typed published transitions, source links and manual-review tasks. Do not update my order sheet. Read full OUTPUT coverage before summarizing.”

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/amycole/jan-japan-release-delay-checks-beta/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

## `historySince` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD, inclusive publication date. When set, walk public older-notice links in both languages until before this date. This is separate from since, which filters returned events. Omit for a latest-index-only diagnostic run. Choose a date relevant to the watched orders; no fixed commercial lookback is assumed.

## `maxHistoryPagesPerLanguage` (type: `integer`):

Operational budget, not a validated product coverage limit. If reached before the requested boundary, the result explicitly reports incomplete history and issues no safe cursor. Increase only after measuring cost.

## `items` (type: `array`):

Objects with unique clientItemId and JAN as a 13-digit string. Optional knownSchedule: {value: YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD, kind: japan_release_month / japan_dispatch / japan_wholesaler_arrival / japan_release_day}. Optional distributor: goodsmile (default).

## `since` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD. Filters returned events only, does not prove archive coverage or detect all in-place edits. Pair with seenEventIds.

## `seenEventIds` (type: `array`):

Suppress processed canonical event IDs or verified equal-fact aliases from monthly summaries. Aliases do not certify corrections or batch identity. This prototype does not issue a safe next cursor.

## `noticeUrls` (type: `array`):

Public Good Smile /ja/news/NUMBER or /en/news/NUMBER URLs. Both language versions are checked. Supports verified month change, month advance, shipping-date change and named cancellation formats. Missing JAN stays unresolved in OUTPUT; explicit URLs do not prove complete history.

## `monthlyHistorySince` (type: `string`):

Optional YYYY-MM-DD, inclusive original announcement-section date. Enables the documented public Japanese support section as supplementary month-change history. May be earlier than historySince to add older month-change facts in bulk. It does not extend the verified linked range or certify older shipping changes/cancellations. Article edit timestamps are not event dates.

## `maxMonthlySummaryPages` (type: `integer`):

Operational page budget for the one public JA support section, 100 articles per page. Exhaustion, malformed article or unsafe pagination keeps this scope incomplete. Not a validated commercial limit.

## `cacheMaxAgeSeconds` (type: `integer`):

Operational freshness allowance. 0 revalidates every checked source; expired entries use conditional HTTP when validators exist, otherwise a full GET. Required-source failures never fall back to stale bodies. Does not certify in-place edits, order batches or complete history.

## `stateStoreName` (type: `string`):

Your own lowercase alphanumeric/hyphen name (1–63 chars), dedicated to this watch workflow. Reuse across sequential runs to retain identity bindings, source snapshots, pending change diagnostics and source cache. This is not a processed-order database. Concurrent runs using the same store are unsupported; the pre-write conflict check is not atomic. Omit to disable persistent state.

## `seenChangeIds` (type: `array`):

Explicitly acknowledge previously received sourceChanges IDs. Pending diagnostics remain visible until acknowledged, independently of since and seenEventIds. Acknowledgment is not proof that a schedule is valid or that a removed fact is a cancellation.

## `sourceReviewResolutions` (type: `array`):

Requires stateStoreName. After inspecting sourceReviewFindings, submit \[{changeId, reviewToken, decision: source_change_reviewed}]. Token must match facts checked this run. Closing a source-fact review does not acknowledge events, identify a cancellation, resolve batch/date conflicts or prove complete history. Changed/missing source facts reopen the review.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "historySince": "2026-09-01",
  "maxHistoryPagesPerLanguage": 80,
  "items": [
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-dispatch-correction",
      "jan": "4580828671478",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-09-18",
        "kind": "japan_dispatch"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-sophia-three-delays",
      "jan": "4570001514623",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-07",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-japanese-only-delay",
      "jan": "4595055216910",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-06",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-month-advance",
      "jan": "4580522750325",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-10",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-second-preorder",
      "jan": "6977459540118",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2027-01",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "synthetic-cancel-4580717791256",
      "jan": "4580717791256",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-10",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    }
  ],
  "seenEventIds": [],
  "noticeUrls": [
    "https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/6917"
  ],
  "monthlyHistorySince": "2026-05-01",
  "maxMonthlySummaryPages": 3,
  "cacheMaxAgeSeconds": 3600,
  "seenChangeIds": [],
  "sourceReviewResolutions": []
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `fullResult` (type: `string`):

Complete JSON. Required to interpret bounded source coverage, unresolved notices and state commit status.

## `reviewQueue` (type: `string`):

One task per unresolved notice/source review, linked to input row IDs. Includes resolution outcomes.

## `ordersCSV` (type: `string`):

UTF-8 BOM CSV keyed by clientItemId and JAN. Published targets are manual-review suggestions, never a verified current schedule.

## `reviewsCSV` (type: `string`):

Deduplicated tasks, affected order row IDs, evidence URLs and current source-review token.

## `runReport` (type: `string`):

Application time, source I/O and SDK calls; not platform pricing or billable units.

## `orders` (type: `string`):

One result per input row. Read fullResult and reviewQueue as well; announcementHistoryComplete is always false.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "historySince": "2026-09-01",
    "items": [
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-dispatch-correction",
            "jan": "4580828671478",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-09-18",
                "kind": "japan_dispatch"
            }
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-sophia-three-delays",
            "jan": "4570001514623",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-07",
                "kind": "japan_release_month"
            }
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-japanese-only-delay",
            "jan": "4595055216910",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-06",
                "kind": "japan_release_month"
            }
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-month-advance",
            "jan": "4580522750325",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-10",
                "kind": "japan_release_month"
            }
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-second-preorder",
            "jan": "6977459540118",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2027-01",
                "kind": "japan_release_month"
            }
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "synthetic-cancel-4580717791256",
            "jan": "4580717791256",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-10",
                "kind": "japan_release_month"
            }
        }
    ],
    "noticeUrls": [
        "https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/6917"
    ],
    "monthlyHistorySince": "2026-05-01"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("amycole/jan-japan-release-delay-checks-beta").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "historySince": "2026-09-01",
    "items": [
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-dispatch-correction",
            "jan": "4580828671478",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-09-18",
                "kind": "japan_dispatch",
            },
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-sophia-three-delays",
            "jan": "4570001514623",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-07",
                "kind": "japan_release_month",
            },
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-japanese-only-delay",
            "jan": "4595055216910",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-06",
                "kind": "japan_release_month",
            },
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-month-advance",
            "jan": "4580522750325",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-10",
                "kind": "japan_release_month",
            },
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "demo-second-preorder",
            "jan": "6977459540118",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2027-01",
                "kind": "japan_release_month",
            },
        },
        {
            "clientItemId": "synthetic-cancel-4580717791256",
            "jan": "4580717791256",
            "knownSchedule": {
                "value": "2026-10",
                "kind": "japan_release_month",
            },
        },
    ],
    "noticeUrls": ["https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/6917"],
    "monthlyHistorySince": "2026-05-01",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("amycole/jan-japan-release-delay-checks-beta").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "historySince": "2026-09-01",
  "items": [
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-dispatch-correction",
      "jan": "4580828671478",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-09-18",
        "kind": "japan_dispatch"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-sophia-three-delays",
      "jan": "4570001514623",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-07",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-japanese-only-delay",
      "jan": "4595055216910",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-06",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-month-advance",
      "jan": "4580522750325",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-10",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "demo-second-preorder",
      "jan": "6977459540118",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2027-01",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    },
    {
      "clientItemId": "synthetic-cancel-4580717791256",
      "jan": "4580717791256",
      "knownSchedule": {
        "value": "2026-10",
        "kind": "japan_release_month"
      }
    }
  ],
  "noticeUrls": [
    "https://www.goodsmile.com/ja/news/6917"
  ],
  "monthlyHistorySince": "2026-05-01"
}' |
apify call amycole/jan-japan-release-delay-checks-beta --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,amycole/jan-japan-release-delay-checks-beta"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/onkA15BtjTkJguTU9/builds/sZXSTytBJThsECeXw/openapi.json