Japanese .jp domain: who can register one and what the rules are

A .jp domain is the country code domain of Japan. To register one, you need a permanent postal address in Japan, as an individual or as an organisation. You register a .jp domain through a registrar, and you can then connect it to your website and email at LJPc hosting.

Below you can read which types of .jp domains exist, who can register them, which rules a .jp name has to meet, how registering, transferring and renewing work, and how to connect your .jp domain to your hosting at LJPc.

What is a .jp domain?

.jp is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of Japan. The registry for all .jp names is Japan Registry Services, or JPRS. On 1 October 2026 there were more than 1.9 million registered .jp domains, of which more than 1.3 million end directly in .jp.

A .jp name goes to whoever applies for it first. The rules are set out in the JPRS registration rules. You can find an English overview in the JPRS guide to JP domain names; the full rules are in Japanese.

Which types of .jp domains are there?

Besides yourname.jp there are names under a second-level extension, such as yourname.co.jp for companies and yourname.tokyo.jp for a prefecture. For almost everyone, a name that ends directly in .jp is the best choice.

Who can register a .jp domain?

Any individual or organisation, with or without legal personality, that has a permanent postal address in Japan can register a .jp domain. You enter that address as the registrant address. For a .co.jp name, your company also has to be registered in Japan.

As the registrant, you guarantee that your details are correct, and you report any change. JPRS can have incorrect details corrected and can cancel a registration, for example if you do not meet the requirements or do not respond to a request for documents. JPRS asks for most registration details in Japanese characters. If the registrant name is written in Latin letters, it may stay in letters and numbers. Your registrar tells you which details it needs from you.

You do not have an address in Japan

The JPRS rules assume the registrant has a permanent postal address in Japan. Some registrars therefore offer a local presence service, where their own Japanese address goes into the registration as the registrant address. That is a service of the registrar, not a JPRS rule. If you choose such a service, ask in advance whose name the domain will be in, how you stay reachable and what happens to that address if you later transfer the domain to another registrar.

Which rules does a .jp name have to meet?

Under the JPRS technical rules, a name directly under .jp has to meet these rules:

• Characters. You can use the letters a to z, the digits 0 to 9 and the hyphen. Upper and lower case are the same.
• Length. A name in Latin letters has 3 to 63 characters, not counting the extension. You cannot register a one or two letter .jp name such as ab.jp. The minimum of 3 characters also applies under .co.jp and the other organisational extensions.
• Hyphens. A name does not start or end with a hyphen.
• Japanese characters. A name with hiragana, katakana or kanji has 1 to 15 characters and may also contain Latin letters, digits and hyphens. Behind the scenes, such a name is converted into a string that starts with xn--.
• Reserved names. Some names cannot be registered, such as extensions like com, names of internet organisations like icann, the names of Japanese prefectures and major cities like tokyo, and a list that JPRS does not publish.

When is a .jp domain the right choice?

According to Google's guidelines for multi-regional websites, a country code domain is a strong signal that a site is meant for that country. .jp is not on the list of country code domains that Google treats as generic, so Google sees a .jp site as a site for Japan. This is how to choose:

If you register .jp without a Japanese site of its own, redirect it to your main site. How to do that properly is explained in redirect a domain to another website. We also cover other countries, such as .be domains and .cn domains.

How to register a .jp domain

1. Check in the JPRS WHOIS whether the name is still available.
2. Choose a registrar that offers .jp. Official JP Registrars are companies established under Japanese law that work with JPRS in Japanese. Registrars outside Japan offer .jp through such a Japanese partner.
3. Register the name in your own name or that of your organisation, with your address in Japan and an email address that already works.
4. Enter the name servers your domain should point to. If you host with LJPc, those are our name servers, as explained below.

JPRS always registers a .jp domain for one year. The expiry date is always the last day of a month: if you register in March, your domain runs until 31 March of the following year.

Connect your .jp domain to your website and email at LJPc

Your .jp domain stays with your registrar and we take care of your website and email. This is how to connect it:

1. Open the order wizard in the customer portal, choose I already have one at another registrar and enter your domain, for example yourdomain.jp. If you do not have an account yet, create one first.
2. Choose Keep domain elsewhere, connect hosting here.
3. Choose your hosting or redirect package and complete the order. LJPc then creates a DNS zone for your domain.
4. Log in at your registrar and set the name servers of your .jp domain to ns1.ljpc.network, ns2.ljpc.network and ns3.ljpc.network. How to do that is explained in change your name servers.

If you want to keep DNS at your registrar, add individual records there that point to your hosting with us, as described in point a domain at another provider to LJPc hosting. If DNSSEC is enabled for your .jp domain, have the DS record removed first, before you change the name servers; what DNSSEC does is explained in what is DNSSEC. After the change, the new information still has to spread across the internet, as you can read in what is DNS propagation. What else to look out for, such as email hosted by another party, is covered in register a domain and link it to your hosting.

Transfer a .jp domain to another registrar

You can transfer your .jp domain to another registrar. This works with a transfer code, which JPRS calls the authorization code.

1. Not sure which registrar your domain is with? Who manages your domain explains how to find out. JPRS only tells the registrant, on request.
2. If your domain has a transfer lock, have your current registrar remove it first.
3. Request the latest authorization code from your current registrar. Keep the code secret: JPRS assumes that a transfer with the correct code comes from the registrant.
4. Give the code to your new registrar, which requests the transfer.
5. After the transfer, check that your name servers still point to the right place. With hosting at LJPc these are ns1, ns2 and ns3.ljpc.network, so your website and email keep working.

What a transfer code is in general is explained in get your EPP code and transfer your domain. For extensions we register, such as .nl and .eu, you transfer your domain to us as described in transfer your domain to LJPc.

Transfer a .jp domain to a new registrant

You can transfer your .jp domain to another individual or organisation. The current and the new registrant agree on the transfer together, and your registrar submits it to JPRS. This also uses an authorization code, and as with a registrar transfer you can have a lock placed on registrant transfers. The new registrant has to meet the requirements as well, so they also need a permanent postal address in Japan. What a change of registrant involves is explained in change the owner of a domain.

What does the WHOIS show for a .jp domain?

The JPRS WHOIS shows the registrant name, the name servers and the dates of the domain. It also shows the public contact of the domain, with name, email address, postal address and phone number. JPRS only discloses the registrant's own address and email address on request.

Through a registrar that offers it, you can have the registrant name hidden in the JPRS WHOIS. This ends automatically when you transfer the domain to another registrar or to a new registrant. What WHOIS data is and how to update it for your own domains is explained in manage the WHOIS data of your domain.

Renewal, expiry and deletion

You renew a .jp domain one year at a time, and your registrar takes care of it. Ask your registrar until when you can pay for the renewal, as it sets its own deadlines.

If you no longer want the domain, or you do not renew it, your registrar has it deleted. The deletion takes effect on the last day of the month. After that:

• within 20 days of the deletion, the former registrant can have the domain restored through the registrar, as if it had never been deleted;
• for one month after the deletion, nobody can apply for the name again;
• after that, the name is available to anyone.

How this works for .nl and other extensions is explained in expired domain, redemption period or quarantine. How to try to get a name that becomes available is explained in backorder a domain name.

Someone else has registered your name as a .jp domain

If someone has registered your trademark as a .jp domain, you can file a complaint under the dispute resolution policy for .jp domains, the JP-DRP. A provider approved by JPNIC handles the complaint, such as the Japan Intellectual Property Arbitration Center (JIPAC). In your complaint you show three things:

1. the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to your trademark or a similar right;
2. the registrant has no right or legitimate interest in the name;
3. the registrant registered or uses the name in bad faith.

A panel decides whether the domain is transferred to you or cancelled; you cannot claim damages this way. The proceedings are in principle in Japanese, even if you are not based in Japan. Read more on the JP-DRP page of JPNIC.

Want to connect your .jp domain to your hosting at LJPc and need a hand? Create a support ticket and we will help you out.