Dear Readers

Special Article 1 covers the 64th ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN) Meeting (ICANN 64 Kobe) to be held from Saturday, March 9 to Thursday, March 14th, 2019. This ICANN Meeting will be held in Japan for the first time in 19 years.

The ICANN Meeting will be held so that ICANN community members can discuss and develop policies on rules to allocate Internet resources. It will focus especially on rules and policies concerning domain names. Policy development at ICANN is designed for the Internet that is widespreading throughout the world, and it is carried out via a bottom-up method by multiple stakeholders involved in the Internet. A distinctive characteristic of ICANN is its multi-stakeholder, bottom-up approach. Of course, ICANN 64 Kobe will also be held with support and cooperation from multiple stakeholders such as the local host committee, network sponsors, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and organizations from Kobe city.

At the ICANN 64 Kobe Meeting, the focuses of attention will be policy development on provisional specifications for ensuring that gTLD registration data (WHOIS data) conforms to the GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation), and on the next New gTLD.

Internet Week 2018 was held from Tuesday, November 27 through Friday, November 30, 2018. The theme was "The more you know, the more you will have fun!"

The Internet has become an infrastructure that is indispensable to people's lives. In comparison with IoT, AI, block-chain technology, etc. which in recent years have received attention with high expectations for the future, the fundamental technology related to the Internet seems modest. However, veteran engineers think that fundamental Internet technology itself is interesting and deep. To share this spirit, we included it in the year's theme, and this successfully led to an increase in conference at tendance by younger generations, and to the engagement of the network team which helped with the operation of events.

Two lively panel discussions themed, "The good things and strange things (not fault) of the Internet industry in Japan" and "The future Internet after ten years", were held during "IP Meeting 2018" and at tracted many participants. These were part of the main program for Internet Week and functioned as a plenary meeting. Looking back over the past 10 years, the Internet has developed dynamically beyond imagination, and it is pretty hard to predict the future Internet 10 years from now. However, one thing you can say for sure is that the Internet has operated steadily, and that has enabled dynamic changes to occur. Given that the importance of fundamental Internet technology is universal, we can move on to new challenges. A detailed report of Internet Week 2018 and IP Meeting 2018 is included in Special Article 2.

In the "Prologue to the Internet: its Technologies and Services", the "JP29-type-robot Nic-kun" and Dr. Netson of the Internet research institute explain "the Development of Music Reproduction Methods". Although we reap benefits from using these every day, how did they develop and become as commonly used as they are?

"Introducing JPNIC members" focuses on a particular JPNIC member engaged in interesting activities. This time, we visited Colt Technology Services Group Limited, established in 1999. It was originally established in Japan as KVH Co., Ltd., and in 2014 it was integrated with Colt Group S.A., established in London in 1992. This integration enabled the combined company to better serve their Asian and European customers in the local language with seamless solutions on a global basis. By focusing on metropolitan areas and concentrating resources, they are demonstrating a considerable advantage in connection services, especially for the financial industry. We were impressed how the company's own specialties were enhanced by a strategy of selection and concentration.

"The Internet loves you" is a corner that introduces someone who is active in the Internet industry. This time, we introduce Ms. Mei Naito of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which is responsible for Japan's information and communications policy. She is engaged in activities related to the ICANN Government Advisory Committee. She talks about the reasons she became interested in the Internet, why she majored in Internet governance, and why she wanted to be a national civil servant. She also told us about the challenges of her job.

In our "10 Minute Internet Course", we highlight the "Empowered Community" of ICANN. In ICANN, the Board of Directors used to have the ultimate authority in ICANN's decision making. Addressing a growing number of requests from the Internet community for a more robust accountability mechanism, a meeting body with authority superior to the Board was put in place.

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!!