.tokyo Pre-Register Domain - .tokyo Domain Information

Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, has the highest GDP and the largest urban area population of any city in the world (United Nations, 2010).

The city is recognized as a world leader in technology and precision manufacturing, and its wholesale and retail sectors are renowned for quality, luxury and high-end products. Tokyo is at the center of both traditional and modern Japanese arts including drama, music, fine arts, anime, design, multi-media, and literature. The city is also home to the largest number of cultural assets in Japan and has the most Michelin star restaurants of any city in the world.

The purpose of .TOKYO is to promote Tokyo as a city, establish a unified online presence, and provide an opportunity for citizens, corporations, cultural institutions and community groups to link their identities to the city's trusted and high profile brand. By bringing together high quality and informative content under a single TLD, the Applicant aims to establish .TOKYO as a platform to effectively deliver Tokyo related information to Internet users worldwide. The Applicant believes this in turn will benefit economy, industry, culture and community in Tokyo and make a valuable contribution to sectors as diverse as commerce, sport and tourism. The Applicant also hopes that through further raising the city's profile on a global scale, it will contribute to an increased sense of pride and responsibility among the citizens and corporations of Tokyo. At the same, the Applicant believes it is important to achieve widespread registration and usage of .TOKYO in order to support these goals, and therefore domain name registration eligibility will be open to individuals and entities worldwide.

Furthermore, the Applicant hopes to see the current new gTLD application round produce multiple new geographic TLDs representing city names, and to be able to make a contribution to establishing the "city TLD" as a new genre of TLDs.

i. What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

As a distinctive TLD representing Tokyo, .TOKYO provides a strong context and association for the domain names registered under it. As such, the Applicant expects .TOKYO to bring about expectations of increased marketing and branding values. The goal of the TLD in this respect is to build a high quality and meaningful domain name space to complement the inherent .TOKYO advantages: direct, simple, easy-to-understand, and memorable.

The Applicant believes that .TOKYO will bring about tangible benefits to the following groups of stakeholders:

For .TOKYO registrants: a namespace that effectively provides information on Tokyo, as well as businesses and services offered by the registrants.

For Internet users: a namespace where Internet users can discover new information about Tokyo and communicate with entities in the city in a safe and productive way.

For others: a TLD that contributes to growth of Tokyo.

Service Level
Registrants
Registration will be completely open in order to allow not only citizens and corporations of Tokyo, but also any individual or entity regardless of geographic location to register names in the TLD. The Applicant intends to price .TOKYO in a range reasonable enough to ensure it is universally accessible but not so low that it risks damaging its value as a TLD.

Promotion
The Applicant is planning to actively run promotions, rebate programs, and marketing programs.

Operation
The Applicant aims to operate the TLD in a secure and stable manner, adopting industry best practices where applicable. The Applicant's operational goals are to have DNS load dispersion that is resistant to DDoS attacks, industry-leading level of Whois information change and DNS record change reflection time, substantial registrar support, and abuse window operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Applicant will also implement proven security measures at every level of the registry business and technical operation to provide maximum protection for its stakeholders. This includes stringent security policies and procedures, as well as comprehensive abuse handling mechanisms to mitigate security threats to the TLD. In addition, the Applicant will strive to provide an outstanding level of technical and operational support to the registrars.

Reputation
The Applicant aims to achieve a reputation for .TOKYO as a namespace that is trusted, safe, secure, relevant and enjoyable, in addition to widely used and well recognized.

In order to maintain high quality content and to avoid diminishing the reputation of Tokyo, the Applicant will develop a set of abuse policies and takedown procedures to handle abuse usage in a timely and appropriate manner. In addition, the Applicant will publish an information page on its website describing the recommended ways to use the TLD. The information page will include best practices for web contents and a list of prohibited activities under the TLD. The Applicant believes that the information page will help registrants understand the purpose of the TLD, preserve the characteristics of .TOKYO, and help mitigate abusive activities.


ii. What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

While .TOKYO is a gTLD, as a city TLD it also shares some characteristics with ccTLDs. The Applicant believes that because .TOKYO differs from existing gTLDs, sTLDs, and ccTLDs, it promotes competition and encourages differentiation benefitting domain name registrants, Internet users, business, and the domain space.

The Applicant plans to leverage the characteristics "direct", "simple", "easy-to-understand", and "memorable" and differentiate .TOKYO through the following activities;
- promotion and support of high quality websites;
- innovative marketing and outreach campaigns; and
- ensuring strong security and stability.
The Applicant believes that this will contribute to reducing cases of abusive use and help foster the development of a high quality namespace.

Local Identification with Brand
As a city TLD that directly represents a ʺplaceʺ, .TOKYO is expected to have brand appeal in the local market above and beyond .COM and .JP. The Applicant believes that the ability to link the registrant's brand with the established, positive and high-profile image of Tokyo will benefit domain users and Internet users alike.

.TOKYO　vs　.JP
Outside of Japan, the countryʹs ccTLD has never been widely adopted due to high registration fees and limitations that require registrants to have an address in Japan. The Applicant believes that .TOKYO will be an attractive alternative to .JP for businesses and individuals who have been previously deterred by the obstacles to establishing a Japan web presence with .JP.
As a ccTLD, even within Japan, usage of .JP is low. Compared with German ccTLD, .DE that has over 14.5 million registered domain names, .JP has just 1.2 million registrations. This means that in Germany one person in every five has a .DE registration while in Japan the ratio is one in 105. Domain name registrations in .TOKYO will be offered at a lower price point than .JP, and for the first time there will be competition in the "Japanese TLD" market. The Applicant believes this will benefit both the end user and the Internet community as a whole in Japan.

.TOKYO　vs　.COM
While it is expected that the branding power of .COM will remain strong, the Applicant anticipates that in Japan and particularly in Tokyo, registrants may choose .TOKYO over .COM for its availability, relevance and local brand.

iii. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

The Applicant will endeavor to achieve the following goals relating to user experience:
1. Internet users find that the services and contents associated with .TOKYO domain names are relevant, and of high quality;
2. Internet users discover new things about Tokyo; and
3. Internet users are not exposed to abusive or malicious content.


iv. Provide a complete description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

Plans for .TOKYO domain name registration policies that support the stated goals are as follows. All .TOKYO TLD registrars and registrants must agree to abide by the policies. Failure to comply with the policies may result in denial, cancelation or transfer of any registration or transaction, or domain names being placed on lock, hold or similar status.

1. Scope of Registration Eligibility
The Applicant believes that broad registration and usage of .TOKYO is essential to the goal of promoting Tokyo as a brand and establishing the namespace as a platform for the effective delivery of Tokyo related information to Internet users worldwide. Therefore, domain name registration in the .TOKYO TLD will be open to all.

2. Recommended Usage of the TLD
The Applicant will recommend that registrants incorporate information related to Tokyo on websites in the .TOKYO space. Information about best practices and prohibited usage will be published on the Applicant's website. Seeking to ensure that .TOKYO delivers high quality Tokyo related content supports the Applicant's objective of making a positive contribution to the economy, industry, culture and community in Tokyo.

3. Draft Abusive Use Policy
The Applicant defines abuse as any activity that may harm the stability and security of the DNS and Internet, including, but not limited to:

- Illegal or fraudulent activities;
- Phishing;
- Pharming;
- Using or distributing malicious software (malware);
- Sending unsolicited bulk messages (spam);
- Posting, trading, or exchanging information that harms minors;
- Posting, trading, or exchanging child pornography;
- Posting information that encourages illegal acts, crimes, murders, or suicides;
- Posting information that is offensive to public order or morals; and
- Posting information that harms the national interest or reputation of Japan including Tokyo.

The Applicant reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name on lock, hold or similar status, at its sole discretion, to enforce the policy.

In addition, the Applicant intends to set up an abuse support window (abuse report form and abuse support window) for .TOKYO that will be operated 24 hours a day, 365 days.

In case an abuse use is reported, the Applicant will promptly take appropriate measures in accordance with the suspension flow provided separately (Please refer to Question 28).

4. Accuracy of Registration Information
.TOKYO registrants are obligated to provide and maintain accurate, complete, and current registration information (Whois information).

Failure to comply with this policy may result in the domain name registration being denied, cancelled, or transferred; the Registry Operator shall also be entitled, in such cases, to delete any such domain names, or place them on lock, hold, or similar status.

5. ICANN Policies
The Applicant will adopt and comply with the Uniform Rapid Suspension System, Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, and all other ICANN policies, regulations, rules (collectively the "ICANN policies"), and all .TOKYO domain name registration will be subject to ICANN policies.

6. Website Best Practices Information Page
In order to help .TOKYO domain name registrants understand the purpose of the TLD, clearly publicize usage restrictions of the TLD, and encourage registrants to use .TOKYO domain names in an appropriate manner, the Applicant will publish an information page on its website describing recommended ways to use .TOKYO domain names. The information page is for information purposes only and will include best practices for web contents and a list of prohibited activities under the TLD.

All .TOKYO registrars will be required to place a link to the information page on their website or include it in domain name registration/renewal confirmation emails sent to the registrants.

Reserved Domain Names
The names of wards, cities, towns and villages in Tokyo, strings related to tourism and transportation in Tokyo, and other names related to the public interest will be reserved initially. These names may be released and used to promote Tokyo prefecture and activate the economy, industries and culture of Tokyo. The list of reserved domain names shall be revised upon request of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.


v. Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

.TOKYO will comply with the applicable laws of Japan and regulations of respective governments, as well as applicable ICANN consensus policies. As part of its responsibility as registry operator of the TLD, the Applicant will exercise due care to protect all information it receives from registrants or users through registrars, and will not disclose such information to any third party, with the exception of public Whois data.

The Applicant does not provide any additional measures beyond its obligation as a registry operator. The Applicant places no restrictions on the use of Whois proxy services, to the extent permissible by law.

Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

Communication with Registrars
In order to achieve the projected benefits, .TOKYO must gain substantial mindshare among Internet users. The Applicant believes that the primary method of increasing recognition and registration numbers in the TLD is to gain strong support from .TOKYO registrars. For that reason, the Applicant intends to:
 Maintain regular communication with registrars;
 Attend ICANN meetings and domain name/Internet related events and have face to face meetings with registrars; and
 Organize events for registrars
Feedback from registrars will be then taken into account, and integrated into public relations and marketing activities that the Applicant organizes where appropriate.

Website Contests
Website contests will be held for websites using .TOKYO domain names. Events will be held on an irregular basis incorporating a wide range of themes such as web design contests aimed at promoting Tokyo culture and creativity, and informative sightseeing website contests aimed at tourism development. The objective of such contests is not only to encourage .TOKYO domain name registrants to create higher quality websites, but also to broaden recognition of .TOKYO. The top scoring websites will be actively promoted as use cases to further increase the profile of the TLD.

Briefing Sessions/Events Organized by the Applicant
The Applicant is planning to have domain related briefing sessions in Tokyo for registrars and resellers because it believes that close communications and industry networking, as well as the exchange of information on registry statistics, policies and technologies, is important to continually improve quality and boost number of registrations in the .TOKYO namespace. In addition, the Applicant is planning to hold events for registrars during the ICANN meetings to communicate and exchange ideas with registrars.

i. How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come/first-serve basis?

Multiple applications for a particular domain name for general registration will be resolved on a first-come-first-served basis as are current gTLDs. However, multiple applications for a particular domain name during the .TOKYO initial launch phase will be resolved as follows:

Sunrise Registration Process
- Auction

Priority Registration Process
- First-come-first-served

Landrush Process
- Auction

ii. Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).

In order to encourage new registrations and renewals of .TOKYO domain names, the Applicant will run campaigns or rebate programs from time to time. The Applicant believes it is important to run campaigns that meet the needs of registrars; therefore, it will exchange ideas with registrars and make an effort to run campaigns that reflect registrar input. The Applicant promises equal treatment for all .TOKYO registrars.

The planned campaigns/rebate programs are as follows:

New Registration Promotion
This is a promotion that provides discounts on first year registration fees of new domain names registered during a predetermined period. The discount will be provided in the form of a rebate credit to the registrar's account at the end of the campaign period. Registrars interested in the promotion will need to sign up and may be required to deliver the benefit to registrants in some way (i.e. provide registrants with discounts on new registrations).

Bulk Registration Rebate Program
This is a promotion that provides a volume discount on the first year registration fee of new domain names registered during a predetermined period. The amount of rebate will depend on the volume of the new registrations made during the campaign. The discount will be provided in the form of a rebate credit to the registrar's account, at the end of the campaign period. Registrars interested in the promotion will need to sign up.

Co-Marketing Program
This program is aimed at expanding recognition of the TLD whereby the Applicant will bear part of the marketing cost of promotions relating to the TLD, conducted by registrars. All registrars interested in the program will be required to sign up and discuss details of the marketing plan in advance with the Applicant.

GMO Registry, Inc. (the Applicant) will comply with Specification 5 "Schedule of Reserved Names at the Second Level in gTLD Registries" of the ICANN New gTLD Agreement. In particular, names covered under the Country and Territory Names section of the said schedule shall be initially reserved on the second level. The names are:

- the short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union 〈http://www.iso.org/iso/support/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists/iso-3166-1_decoding_table.htm#EU〉;
- the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and
- the list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names;

At a later time, the Applicant may propose that ICANN release specific country and territory names, subject to the registry reaching agreement with the applicable government(s), the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) review and approval by ICANN. Rules and procedures for the release of such names will be agreed upon between ICANN and the Applicant.

The Applicant is considering the following procedures for releasing specific country and territory names, subject to ICANN approval:

1. In order for specific country and territory names to be released and become available for .TOKYO stakeholders to register, the Applicant shall submit a proposal letter to ICANN and the GAC including, at minimum, the following:
A. The list of country and territory names which the registry requests for release; and
B. Purpose of releasing the names listed above;
2. ICANN and the GAC review the proposal letter and inform of the proposal to the relevant government(s);
3. Each of the relevant governments takes the following action:
A. If the government approves or does not object to the proposal, it replies with its decision of "approval" or "non-objection" by a due date set and agreed upon by ICANN, the GAC, and the Applicant; or
B. If the government does not approve the proposal, it replies with a "non-approval" decision by a due date set and agreed upon by ICANN, the GAC, and the Applicant.
4. If a reply is not received by the due date agreed upon by ICANN, the GAC and the Applicant, or the government replied with an "approval" or "non-objection" decision, the names may be released for registration.
5. In case the government replied with a "non-approval" decision, the government and the Applicant may enter negotiation to attempt to reach agreement, and only upon reaching agreement shall the names be released.
6. Potential registrants of the names shall send registration requests to the Applicant. The request must include the following information:
A. Domain name(s) the registrantt wishes to register;
B. A pledge the registrant understands the purpose and rules of the domain name registration and use included in the proposal letter described 1.A. above; and
C. A pledge the registrant abides by the purpose and rules of the domain name registration and use included in the proposal letter described 1.A. above;
7. The Applicant reviews the request and checks availability of the requested name. In case the Applicant approves the request, it issues a "code."
Note: The availability check is conducted to see whether the requested domain name has been already requested and registered by another registrant.
8. Using the "code," the registrant requests the domain name registration through a .TOKYO accredited registrar.

In addition to the reserved geographic names specified by ICANN, the Applicant intends to initially reserve the following geographic names at the second level in .TOKYO TLD:
- Names of wards, cities, towns, and villages in Tokyo; and
- Other geographic names required by the respective government(s)

As the responsible use of these names is in the public interest, methodology to release these names will be determined by the respective government(s) and the Applicant. The list of the reserved geographic names will be posted at the registry website and it shall be revised upon a request made by the respective government(s).

Names of Wards, Cities, Towns, and Villages in Tokyo
The names reserved in this category are determined based on the ward, city, town, and village names listed in "Municipalities within Tokyo" on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government website at http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/LINKS/links1.htm. All names listed below will be reserved:

- Full names of wards, cities, towns, and villages: ward, city, town, and village names and ward (ku in Japanese), city (shi in Japanese), town (machi in Japanese), or village (mura in Japanese) are connected with a hyphen
- i.e. Chiyoda-ku, Kiyose-shi, Mizuho-machi, Hinohara-mura
- names of the wards, cities, towns and villages with ku, shi, machi, and mura without a hyphen in between
- i.e. Chiyodaku、Kiyoseshi、Mizuhomura、Hinoharamura
- the short form of ward, city, town, and village names without hyphen (-) and "ku," "shi," "machi," or "mura"
- i.e. Chiyoda, Kiyose, Mizuho, Hinohara

Other Geographic Names
Geographic names that the respective government(s) to reserve from registrations at the second level in .TOKYO TLD will be initially reserved.