World Wide Alliance of Top Level Domain-names

ccTLD ICANN Meetings in Montreal

JPRS letter to ICANN requesting for Strong Initiative for IDN Implementation

12 June 2003

Dr. Paul Twomey
President and CEO
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6601
USA

Dear Dr. Paul Twomay,

JPRS, as the .jp registry, understands ICANN's invaluable role for the evolution of the Internet and is grateful for and in full support of the ongoing effort of ICANN in achieving the goal. Today I would like to share with you the status surrounding IDN implementation, and, moreover, request you to further drive the IDN implementation.

At the Board Meeting held in Rio de Janeiro on 26 March, ICANN Board endorsed the IDN implementation approach set forth in the draft Guidelines, and it authorized the President to implement the Guidelines by authorizing registration of IDNs in registries with agreements with ICANN on the basis of those Guidelines. And, at the Public Forum held prior to the Board Meeting, Dr. Andrew McLaughlin mentioned the first authorization of registration would be made over a couple of weeks from that time, i.e., by the middle of April.

The TLD registries including JPRS have prepared to start the IDN services at a time when IDN technical standardization is achieved, in order to meet the needs of the Internet community. The registries have conducted various measures to avoid confusion in the community. As you know, one example is the definition of character codes to be used within domain names associated with a language. Therefore, it is the registries' perception that there should be no obstacle when the standardization is attained.

JPRS has supported ICANN's proposal that the registries will launch IDN services based upon certain cross-registry collaboration, and has contributed, as the member of IDN Registry Implementation Committee, to improvement of the Guidelines and procedures. However, in spite of the effort, the Guidelines and procedures have not been finalized even after two and a half months now from Rio. The text is still within ICANN, and the community has not received any explanation by ICANN for this slowness and irresponsiveness.

This is most regrettable situation, considering the community's needs for early IDN implementation. In Japan, deep frustration with ICANN's snail pace and delay of the start of IDN service caused by the slowness has been increasing.

Therefore, JPRS hereby urges you to finalize the guidelines and procedures without waiting for Montreal meetings, and requests your immediate and sincere response to this request.

We would be very happy to devote ourselves to find a breakthrough with you, based on our continued support for ICANN.

Sincerely yours,

Koki Higashida
President
Japan Registry Service Co., Ltd.