Today’s blog post focuses on second level domain name registration in Japan. We look at the history and growth of .jp, explore its overall success and compare the launch of .jp to processes in place for second level registration in .au.
History
Japan Registry Services officially launched second level, ‘general use’ .jp registration in 2002, to meet consumer demand and open up the Japanese namespace. The introduction of the .jp domain meant that businesses and individuals would be eligible to register a second domain name, which they weren’t previously able to do.
The only requirement for a general use .jp domain name is that the registrant must have a permanent postal address in Japan, which is similar to the requirement of an Australian presence for registering a .au domain name.
The priority process for second level .jp domain names worked differently to the proposed process for .au. For .jp, anyone that met the requirement was eligible to apply during the one month application period. In cases where there were competing domain names, the successful applicant would be decided by random draw, whereas in .au, this will be decided during a 6 month priority application process.
Growth
As demonstrated in a press release from JPRS in September 2017, .jp registrations showed a healthy incline after reaching the 1 million mark in September 2017.
JPRS President, Koki Higashida announced this significant milestone, the article indicating their success, ‘the cumulative number of registered JP domain names as a whole is over 1.48 million and about 70% of the names are General-use JP domain names.’
The most recent JP Domain Name Registry Report from January 2019 shows that these figures are still climbing, revealing that general use .jp names present the highest in registration volume of all types of .jp domain names (page 26). The difference between general use and organisational/geographic .jp domain names stands at over half a million registrations, which is a good sign for .au.
The JPRS website states that as of August 1 2019, .jp general use domain name registration total volume is at 1,066,072.
Image 1: Example of a second level .jp domain name 'salus.jp'
.au is coming
Japan was one of the earliest adopters of country code second level domain names, largely due to the popularity of the internet and interest in domain names across the country. Soon, Australia will join Japan and many other countries in opening up the namespace, enabling the registration of shorter .au domain names and providing greater consumer choice for all Australians.
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