.nagoya Domain
Japan's Industrial Heartland Gets Its Own Domain
Register your .nagoya domain from just £19.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
Anyone worldwide may register a .nagoya, but names must be at least three characters and the City of Nagoya can add to the reserved list. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .nagoya domain?
The .nagoya domain represents Nagoya, Japan's fourth-largest city and the centre of the country's manufacturing belt. Toyota, the world's largest car manufacturer, is headquartered in nearby Toyota City. Nagoya is also home to major aerospace, ceramics, and robotics industries. Managed by GMO Registry, .nagoya gives businesses in the Chubu region a domain that connects them to one of Japan's most productive economic zones.
Who should register .nagoya?
Nagoya-based manufacturers, automotive suppliers, Japanese businesses in the Chubu region, and organisations connected to Nagoya's industrial economy.
Why choose .nagoya?
- Represents Japan's manufacturing capital
- Connected to Toyota and the automotive industry
- Managed by GMO Registry
- Strong industrial and tech economy
Who runs .nagoya, and since when
Registry data from the .nagoya 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
- Generic (gTLD)
- Registry operator
- GMO Registry, Inc.
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2014
- Delegated 16 January 2014
- Who can register
- Any natural person or entity worldwide may register, with a three-character minimum
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £19.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
How the City of Nagoya shapes .nagoya reserved names
GMO Registry states the eligibility position for .nagoya in one sentence: any natural person or entity is eligible to register domain names in the TLD. It gives its reasoning too, that broad registration and usage is what makes the extension work as a way of promoting the city. So there is no Aichi address test and no Japanese company requirement.
The rules that do bite are about the name. It must be at least three characters and no more than sixty-three, may use only letters, digits and hyphens, cannot start or end with a hyphen, and cannot carry two consecutive hyphens in the third and fourth positions. Japanese-script names are supported through GMO Registry's IDN policy, which is the reason a Japanese business would want this extension rather than a .com in the first place.
The reserved list is the part worth knowing. Two-character labels, country and territory names, the names of wards, cities, towns and villages in Nagoya, and strings connected with tourism and transportation are all held back, and the registry says that list is revised on the request of the government of the City of Nagoya. Whether a name is available is therefore partly a municipal decision.
Who is allowed to register .nagoya?
Anyone worldwide may register a .nagoya, but names must be at least three characters and the City of Nagoya can add to the reserved list.
- Who qualifies
- Any natural person or entity, anywhere. The registry says so directly in its registration policies, on the reasoning that broad use is what promotes Nagoya as a brand.
- Three-character minimum
- A .nagoya name must be at least three characters long. Two-character labels are reserved, along with country and territory names, in accordance with the .nagoya registry agreement with ICANN.
- Hyphen rules
- Letters, digits and hyphens only, up to sixty-three characters. No leading or trailing hyphen, no underscores, and no two consecutive hyphens in the third and fourth positions, which is the pattern the DNS uses to mark an internationalised name.
- The city reserves names
- Ward, city, town and village names within Nagoya are reserved, as are strings related to tourism and transportation and other names described as being in the public interest. The registry revises that list at the request of the government of the City of Nagoya.
- Terms and disputes
- Registrations run from one to ten years. Every .nagoya is subject to the UDRP and to the Uniform Rapid Suspension system, so a trademark holder has a fast route to taking an infringing name down.
Rules taken from the GMO Registry .nagoya registration policies. 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 .nagoya the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.nagoya works well if
- You are a manufacturer, supplier or service business in the Chubu region and want the address to place you without a paragraph of explanation.
- Your Japanese-language brand needs a Japanese-script domain. GMO Registry supports IDN across its city extensions, so the whole address can be in Japanese.
- The site is for an event, a venue or a visitor business in the city, and the extension handles the geography in three syllables.
Look elsewhere if
- You need a Japan-wide signal in Google. .nagoya is generic in Google's classification, not a country code, so a .jp or co.jp is what carries that.
- The name you want is short. Two-character names are reserved and the minimum length is three, so initials are frequently out of reach.
- Your audience sits outside Japan. Very few people abroad connect the word to a city, and to a British customer it reads as an unfamiliar extension rather than as a place.
Selling outside Japan too? Hold the .com as the address people type and run the .nagoya as the local site. See .com pricing.
.nagoya vs .com: which should you register?
Nobody really chooses between these on merit. A .com is the address a customer types without thinking. A .nagoya is a statement about where you are and what you are part of. The two barely overlap enough to argue about.
The question worth asking is whether your audience sits inside the Chubu region or outside it. Inside, the extension identifies you faster than any tagline, and Japanese-script names make it more useful still. Outside, it needs explaining, and explaining your own address is a cost you pay on every call. Most businesses that buy one hold the .com alongside it and point one at the other, which removes the question for a few pounds a year.
.nagoya domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .nagoya domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyNo. The registration policy says any natural person or entity is eligible, and the registry explains why: it wants broad registration because that is what promotes the city as a brand. So there is no address check, no Aichi requirement and no Japanese company test. What is checked is the name itself, against the syntax rules and against a reserved list the City of Nagoya government can ask to have revised.
Yes. GMO Registry offers Japanese internationalised domain names across all of its city extensions, so a fully Japanese-script .nagoya address is possible. The technical requirement is that the encoded form is valid under IDNA2008 and would pass the ordinary length and composition rules on its own. If you register one, hold the Latin-script version as well and redirect it, because anyone typing on a non-Japanese keyboard will otherwise be stuck.
The launch phases ran through 2014: sunrise for trademark holders from 20 February to 19 April, land rush from 28 April to 13 June, then general availability from 23 June. Anything contested during those phases went to auction. More than a decade on the namespace is far from full, so ordinary names are usually still there. What will not be there are two-character names, Nagoya place names, and tourism and transportation strings, all of which are reserved.
Included with Your .nagoya 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 .nagoya domain today
Secure your .nagoya domain from just £19.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
