Topics: 2026

".jp" Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary

On August 5, 2026, ".jp" celebrated the 40th anniversary of its inception.

In the 1980s, as operations for domain names and the DNS were getting underway, the initial set of top-level domains (TLDs) was proposed by Dr. Jon Postel, who was responsible for managing common resources of the Internet. The proposal included not only TLDs categorized by type - equivalent to today's gTLDs - but also country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) for countries to connect to the Internet, using the two-letter country codes defined by the international standard ISO 3166-1. As a result, Japan's ccTLD became ".jp."

At that time, the Internet had not yet been commercialized, and its primary users were researchers and experts at universities and government agencies, as well as companies and organizations conducting joint research with them. ccTLDs were delegated to individuals whom Dr. Postel deemed capable of fulfilling the responsibilities required for their country's connection to the Internet; therefore, on August 5, 1986, Dr. Postel delegated the .jp to Dr. Jun Murai. Subsequently, in 1988, Japan's major academic networks agreed to delegate .jp to Dr. Murai and to introduce five organizational attributes - ac, ad, co, go, and or - to denote organizational types. Full-scale operations began in October 1989 when JUNET completed its transition to .jp.

To ensure fair registration management, it was recognized that a neutral organization - one that was accessible to all networks and did not belong to any specific network - was necessary. Following coordination among the relevant parties, the Japan Network Information Center (JNIC) was established in December 1991 and assumed management of the .jp. JNIC was reorganized into JPNIC in April 1993.

JPNIC carried out various initiatives to adapt the .jp to the expansion and widespread adoption of the Internet, including the introduction of Geographic Type JP Domain Name, the addition of new attributes (ne, ed, gr), the introduction of domain name registration fees - ahead of the rest of the world - the establishment of the JP Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (JP-DRP) to swiftly resolve disputes, and the introduction of General-use JP Domain Name, which allowed individuals to register and placed no limits on the number of registrable domain names.

In the late 1990s, the Internet had been commercialized, and user demand and expectations regarding domain names rose rapidly. In response to this situation and to ensure the sustainable management of .jp registration, Japan Registry Services (JPRS) was established in December 2000. Initially, JPRS carried out the registration and management of .jp under agency and outsourcing arrangements. Following the signing of ccTLD Sponsorship Agreement (.jp) with ICANN, JPRS assumed administration of .jp in April 2002.

JPRS continues to implement various activities to enhance the availability, security, and convenience of .jp, including the introduction of IP Anycast, full support for IPv6, raising the frequency of updates, the implementation of DNSSEC, the introduction of Prefecture Type JP Domain Name, and the deployment of local nodes for JP DNS servers.

On September 30, 1989, 261 domain names were transferred from JUNET to .jp. As of August 1, 2026, the number of .jp registrations has reached approximately 1.88 million. JPRS will continue to strive to meet the needs of the Internet community and society, and to provide JP domain name services that support the Internet society.

1. .jp Domain Delegation Data
   https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/jp.html
   (Registration information for .jp in the IANA Root Zone Database)
2. Registered JP Domain Names (Total Number)
   https://jprs.co.jp/en/stat/