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Press Release: 2002

Press Release

February 28, 2002
Japan Registry Services, Co., Ltd. (JPRS)

JPRS Signed an Agreement with ICANN on Management and Administration of .JP Top Level Domain - JPRS Will Start the Management and Administration from April 1. -

On February 27, 2002(Pacific Standard Time), Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd. (JPRS) signed the "ccTLD Sponsorship Agreement (.jp)" (*1) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). .JP is the second fastest ccTLD following .AU to enter into the formal Agreement with ICANN.

Upon effectuation of this Agreement and the "JP Domain Name Management and Administration Transfer Agreement" concluded with Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC) on January 30, 2002, JPRS sets out to conduct all operations related to .JP top level domain with some exceptions, starting from April 1, 2002. The exceptions include development of the .JP Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (JP-DRP) and related rules for its procedure and part of the Data Escrow operation of the JP domain registry data. These will be conducted by JPNIC.

The ccTLD Sponsorship Agreement clearly sets forth the obligations of JPRS and ICANN and the roles to be played by JPNIC and the Government of Japan. This agreement stipulates, for instance, that ICANN shall ensure that the root server system is operated in a stable and secure manner. It also stipulates that the JPRS shall, in the interest of both global and Japanese Internet community, manage and administer .JP top level domain and operate the authoritative primary and secondary nameservers for the .JP domain. JPNIC and the Government are to oversee that this mechanism works smoothly. This introduces a contractual relationship to the operation of the Internet, which was previously supported by voluntary effort, to bring about more reliability and stability. On February 8, in advance of the establishment of the Sponsorship Agreement, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) publicized a report (*2) concluding that JPRS is an appropriate organization to manage and administer the .JP top level domain.

The management and administration of the .JP top level domain has so far been delegated by ICANN to Dr. Jun Murai, President of JPNIC, and conducted by JPNIC accordingly. JPRS was founded on December 26, 2000 as a company to which the management and administration of .JP top level domain would be transferred from JPNIC, based upon the resolution (*3) of the JPNIC 11th General Meeting held on December 22, 2000. Since then, JPNIC and JPRS have discussed the conditions and procedures of transfer, following the basic principle of contributing to the Internet community in Japan. In the course of the investigation, public comments were called for through comment forums and meetings held by JPNIC for further discussions. The results are reflected on the "Memorandum for the Transfer of Management and Administration of the .JP Top Level Domain"(*4) executed between JPNIC and JPRS on November 9, 2001. Along with the study and discussion, JPRS has served as the operator of the .JP top level domain entrusted by JPNIC since February 2001, accumulating experience and expertise in the management and administration.

Dr. Murai, JPNIC and many other individuals and organizations in the Internet community have played major roles in making a wonderful history of the .JP top level domain, which is characterized by



In negotiations for the ccTLD Sponsorship Agreement (.jp), effort was made not to stick to the Model Sponsorship Agreement that had been proposed by ICANN, but to have the good tradition of the .JP top level domain reflected in the agreement. As a result, the Sponsorship Agreement clearly sets forth that, in addition to the Government whose name was solely mentioned in the proposed model, JPNIC will continue to be an entity overseeing that the intention of the Internet community is communicated to JPRS in its management of JP domain names. We believe this will follow the tradition of the Internet developed by the community effort and, at the same time, become a new model for realizing reliability and stability of the management of the Internet.

Koki Higashida, President and CEO of JPRS comments as follows: "We are grateful to the members of the Japanese Internet community for their cooperation, based on which JPRS could sign the JP Domain Name Management and Administration Transfer Agreement with JPNIC and the ccTLD Sponsorship Agreement with ICANN. After the transfer, JPRS will manage and administer the .JP top level domain , cherishing its history and achievements we can be proud of in the world and aiming at further enhancing its function."

Dr. Stuart Lynn, President and CEO of ICANN comments as follows: "On behalf of ICANN, I am delighted to enter into this agreement with JPRS. It underscores the continuing and welcome participation of the Japanese Internet community in the ICANN process, and reflects Japan's strong leadership in the global Internet. This agreement signifies JPRS' and ICANN's joint commitment to promote a stable Internet, both worldwide and locally in Japan."


JPRS (Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd.)
Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd.(JPRS) was incorporated on December 26, 2000, to administer JP domain name registration and management, and to carry out operation of the domain name system. JPRS carries out registration and administration of the JP domain name in a fair and neutral manner.


ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
ICANN is the non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract by IANA and other entities.


IANA (the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority)
IANA is a function to allocate the Internet resources such as top level domains, IP addresses, protocol numbers at the global level. Until establishment of ICANN, IANA function was conducted by the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California. Currently, IANA performs its operation as a part of ICANN.


Data Escrow
Data Escrow in the management and administration of the .JP top level domain is to escrow the registry data, including domain name, registrant, and registration date, to the third party. The purpose of Data Escrow is to ensure that in case of redelegation of the ccTLD, the successor manager can smoothly perform the management and administration.


References

(*1)ccTLD Sponsorship Agreement (.jp) - as proposed
http://jprs.co.jp/doc/redelegation/sponsorship_e.html
Japanese language translation
http://jprs.co.jp/doc/redelegation/sponsorship_j.html

(*2)IANA Report on Request for Redelegation of the .jp Top-Level Domain
http://www.iana.org/reports/jp-report-08feb02.htm
Japanese language translation
http://jprs.co.jp/doc/redelegation/ianareport_j.html

(*3)Resolution of JPNIC 11th General Meeting (in Japanese)
http://www.nic.ad.jp/jp/materials/general-meeting/20001211/minutes.html

(*4)Memorandum for the Transfer of the Management and Administrationof the .JP Top Level Domain (in Japanese)
http://jprs.co.jp/en/redelegation/mou.html

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