Dear Readers,

Did you all notice that we have adopted a brand-new design and introduced a new corner in this issue? We hope you enjoy these, and we will continue to strive to deliver even more useful information.

This issue of the newsletter highlights the following two special articles.

In Special Article 1, we report on the business plan and income and expenditure budget for FY2020 approved by JPNIC members in March 2020, and the business report and income and expenditure settlement for FY2019 approved in June 2020. We also introduce the members of the newly formed Board of Trustees and Auditors who will be responsible for the operation of JPNIC for the next two years.

Special Article 2 covers the programs provided by JPNIC to support younger engineers and researchers in Japan who wish to participate in international conferences. As part of this program, the APRICOT 2020 Participation Report Meeting was held on Thursday, April 2, 2020. We’ll update you on the status of this briefing session, which was held completely online due to the influence of COVID-19.

In this installment of, “Prologue to the Internet: its Technologies and Services,” “Dr. Hajime Koto” and “Robot JP-29” of the Internet research institute explain the development of blogging. Let's take a look at how the blogging system has evolved as a simple means of Web communication.

We have set up a NEW corner, “Pick Out!” to introduce featured articles from the JPNIC blog. This time, we cover an article about the JPNIC technical seminar which was held virtually for the first time in late April 2020. The JPNIC technical seminar is a seminar which explains the basic technology of the Internet and is held regularly several times throughout the year. Up until this spring, the seminar was held in the JPNIC offices, but due to COVID-19, we switched to an all-remote technical seminar. Here's what went on behind-the-scenes in preparation for the first online seminar.

“Introducing JPNIC members” focuses on a particular JPNIC member engaged in interesting activities. This time around, we focus on BIGLOBE Inc., headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company is a long-established ISP that has also been leading the Internet industry in terms of its technology. What impressed us during the interview was their enthusiasm for providing consumers with a much better service and exploring new possibilities for the Internet, as seen in their corporate philosophy to create new value and a prosperous society by connecting people, companies, and society in a benevolent manner.

“The Internet loves you” is a corner that introduces someone who is active in the Internet industry. This time, we introduce Mr. Kenichi Yamashita of SAKURA internet Inc. He is responsible for dealing with “abuse,” which in this context refers to nuisances and misconduct carried out on the Internet. He is enthusiastically working as part of the community of staff at cloud service providers and ISPs who respond to abuse. He also demonstrates the knowledge and experience he has gained from his work. He talks about his career, future goals, and reasons for going into the Internet industry, even though he majored in visual arts and sciences in college.

In our “10 Minute Internet Course”, we explore the Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS). MANRS is an initiative intended to greatly improve the security and resiliency of the global routing system of the Internet, and is promoted by ISOC (the Internet Society). The Internet, which consists of an international interconnection of networks, is vulnerable to various risks. Telecommunications carriers, cloud service operators and other entities disclose information about the MANRS checklist so that all parties understand the countermeasures that can be taken against risks.

In addition, you'll also find “Internet Topics,” “JPNIC Activity Reports,” “Statistics,” etc., for the past several months.

If you have any comments or feedback, please feel free to contact us at jpnic-news@nic.ad.jp. Your comments are greatly appreciated!!