Domains with .tokyo could be available next year

News Desk

The Yomiuri Shimbun

From next year, Internet users may be able to have domain names ending with .tokyo, .sendai or .canon in e-mails and Web sites, according to sources.

At least five local governments and two Japanese companies--Canon Inc. and Hitachi Ltd.--have indicated they plan to register their names for top-level domains under a plan to massively increase the number of available domains on the Internet.

Domains are a set of Internet addresses that come after an "@" mark. The ones installed in the root zone of email and website addresses are called top-level domains. There are only 22 top-level domain categories, including one for countries, such as Japan's .jp. Companies typically use the .com category, while .org is for nonprofit organisations.

In 2008, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a US nonprofit organisation that manages domains across the globe, decided to liberalise the usage of top-level domains. It will begin receiving applications for the new domains from Thursday to April and then examine whether it will allow them to be registered ahead of their expected use next year.

A company wanting to register the name of a location such as .tokyo must have the approval of the local government. This is to prevent companies from arbitrarily taking location names. Only organisations with the appropriate skills and resources to administer and manage the domains should submit applications.

The Tokyo metropolitan government said it would endorse a plan for GMO Registry Inc. to apply for the .tokyo top-level domain. The Tokyo-based company expects the eventual creation of dozens of top-level domains as businesses and governments seek to increase awareness of their products or localities.

Companies and organisations operating in the same areas, as well as local residents, are expected to use identical location-name top-level domains.

The prefectural governments of Okinawa, Osaka and Wakayama as well as the Sendai municipal government are making plans for their names to be registered as top-level domains.

They are drawing up conditions that must be followed by administrators of the domains.

-- ANN 2012-01-11

I have first dibbs on schoolgirls.tokyo

Good thing I'm not one of those heavily invested in expensive domain names. Seems that may become a game of musical chairs shortly.