.jp Domain
Japan's Official Country Domain
Register your .jp domain from just £57.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Only an individual, group or organisation with a permanent postal address in Japan may hold a general-use .jp domain, and the organisational types under it are narrower still. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .jp domain?
The .jp domain is Japan's country code, managed by the Japan Registry Services (JPRS). Japan has the world's fourth-largest economy and over 100 million internet users. Japanese consumers are brand-conscious and place high value on trust signals, making .jp the preferred domain for domestic businesses. Registration requires a Japanese contact address, which keeps the namespace highly credible. For UK businesses targeting Japanese consumers, .jp is the domain that opens doors.
Who should register .jp?
Japanese businesses, UK companies exporting to Japan, automotive and electronics brands, and organisations targeting Japanese consumers.
Why choose .jp?
- Japan's official country code
- Preferred by Japan's 100+ million internet users
- Requires Japanese contact (highly trusted namespace)
- Fourth-largest global economy
Who runs .jp, and since when
Registry data from the .jp delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Country-code (ccTLD)
- Registry operator
- Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd.
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 1986
- Delegated 5 August 1986
- Who can register
- Requires a permanent postal address in Japan
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £57.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
The Japanese address rule behind every .jp domain
Everything about the .jp domain comes back to one line in the registry's own guide: any individual, group or organization having a permanent postal address in Japan is eligible for registration of a General-use JP Domain Name. No address in Japan, no domain. There is no waiver, no local agent scheme that leaves you as the holder, and no documentation route that gets you round it.
Below the general-use names sit the organisational types, and they are stricter again. A CO.JP holder must be a corporation registered under the laws of Japan, which is the closest thing to good news here for a British company: JPRS states that non-Japanese corporations registered in Japan as Gaikoku Kaisha, meaning a foreign company, may also apply. OR.JP is for judicial persons other than kaisha established under Japanese law, and NE.JP for network service providers in Japan offering services to the public. Each of those is limited to one domain per registrant, while general-use names carry no such limit. The old geographic type JP names are not an alternative route: JPRS closed them to new registration on 31 March 2012.
The trap is the workaround. Putting a distributor's or an agency's Japanese address on the registration does not give you a .jp, it gives them one, and unwinding that later means asking a partner to hand back an asset they legally hold. If Japan matters enough to want the extension, it usually matters enough to register the branch or subsidiary that can hold it properly.
Who is allowed to register .jp?
Only an individual, group or organisation with a permanent postal address in Japan may hold a general-use .jp domain, and the organisational types under it are narrower still.
- General-use JP names
- JPRS states that any individual, group or organization having a permanent postal address in Japan is eligible. There is no limit on how many a qualifying registrant may hold, and this is the level most businesses mean when they say they want a .jp.
- CO.JP for companies
- The registrant must be a corporation registered under the laws of Japan. Non-Japanese corporations registered in Japan as Gaikoku Kaisha, the foreign company registration, may also apply. One CO.JP domain per registrant.
- The other organisational types
- OR.JP is for judicial persons other than kaisha established under the laws of Japan, and NE.JP for network service providers in Japan offering network services to the general public. Both are limited to one domain per registrant.
- The geographic route is closed
- Geographic type JP domain names were once tied to a locality in Japan. JPRS closed them to new registration on 31 March 2012, so they are not an alternative for anyone who cannot meet the address requirement.
- If you do not qualify
- The registration cannot go ahead, because the address is a condition of eligibility rather than a contact detail. Using somebody else's Japanese address makes them the registrant and the legal holder of the name, which is a worse outcome than not having it.
Rules taken from the JPRS guide to JP domain names. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .jp the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.jp works well if
- You have a Japanese subsidiary, branch or registered foreign company, so the address requirement is already met by an entity you control.
- You sell to Japanese consumers, where a local address is read as a commitment to being there rather than a marketing choice.
- You are protecting a brand in a market that takes trademarks and trust signals seriously, and you want the obvious name held properly.
- Your Japanese-language site deserves its own address rather than a subfolder that reads as an afterthought.
Look elsewhere if
- You have nothing in Japan. Without a permanent postal address there you cannot hold a general-use .jp, whatever a reseller implies.
- You were planning to use your distributor's address. That makes the distributor the holder, and you would be renting your own brand name.
- You want it as a badge for a UK audience. It costs several times a .co.uk every year and does nothing in British search results.
No Japanese entity yet? Hold the .com, publish the Japanese pages under it, and register the .jp once you have an address there. See .com pricing.
.jp vs .com: which should you register?
In Japan this is not a close contest for a business that qualifies. A .jp reads as a company that is actually present, and the eligibility rule is exactly why: everybody knows a .jp holder had to have an address in the country. That is the value of a restricted namespace, and it is why the restriction is worth defending rather than complaining about.
Pick .jp when you have the entity, the address and a Japanese-language site to put behind it. Pick .com when you do not, which is most UK businesses at the point they first think about Japan. A well-built Japanese section under a .com is far better than no Japanese presence at all, and it does not depend on a partner's goodwill.
When the Japanese operation becomes real, register the .jp then and move the Japanese pages onto it. That order of events costs you nothing and avoids the arrangement where somebody else holds your name.
| .jp | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| Who may register | Address in Japan required | Anyone worldwide |
| Company names | CO.JP needs Japanese registration | No such concept |
| Domains per registrant | One on organisational types | No limit |
| Signal in Japan | A business that is present | Foreign or global |
| Annual cost | High | Low |
.jp domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .jp domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyOnly with a permanent postal address in Japan. JPRS limits general-use JP names to individuals, groups and organisations that have one, so a UK company with no Japanese presence cannot hold one in its own name. The route that does work is a Japanese entity: a subsidiary, or a foreign company registered in Japan as Gaikoku Kaisha, which JPRS accepts for CO.JP applications.
The general-use .jp sits directly under the country code and is open to anyone with a Japanese postal address, with no limit on how many you hold. CO.JP is for corporations registered under the laws of Japan, and a registrant may hold only one. CO.JP carries more weight with Japanese business audiences precisely because of that scarcity, while general-use .jp is shorter and easier to qualify for.
You can, and you should not. The registrant is whoever the address and the record belong to, so a domain registered on your distributor's details is legally theirs. If the relationship ends, or they are acquired, or somebody there decides the domain is an asset worth keeping, you have no easy claim. Register through an entity you control, or wait until you have one.
Only once Japan is a real part of the business. It costs several times a .co.uk every year, it needs a Japanese address you may not have yet, and it earns nothing in UK search results. Where you already sell into Japan through a local entity, it is one of the strongest trust signals any extension gives you, because Japanese buyers know what it takes to hold one.
Included with Your .jp Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Geographic Domains Extensions
Register your .jp domain today
Secure your .jp domain from just £57.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
