JNIC Overview
			(July, 1992)

				Japan Network Information Center (JNIC)
				c/o Computer Centre, Univ. of Tokyo
				Yayoi 2-11-16, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan

With the rapid escalation of the number of networks in Japan,
assignments and registrations for domain names and network numbers
become too heavy to be carried out by voluntary groups. The processing
delay of assignments and registrations began to block smooth growth of
Japanese computer networks.

Everyone who plans to join the japanese internet did not have a
general service point to ask questions. Network users started to
starve for network related information. Technical administrators
wanted to get information about other networks whenever some trouble
occurred, but there is no such database.

Technical section of Japan Committee of Research Networks (JCRN) has
been discussing on these problems and proposed to establish a network
information center for Japanese computer networks.

Japan Network Information Center (JNIC) started its operation on
December 1, 1991 to assign numbers, administrate names, and provide
information services. JNIC works with the cooperation of all related
network projects in Japan. Quick response and fairness are the most
important requirements.

Current administrative roles of JNIC are as follows:

- IP network number assignment for Japan (ip-alloc@nic.ad.jp)
- JP domain name allocation (name-admin@nic.ad.jp)
- JP name server administration (bind-admin@nic.ad.jp)

Criteria for assignment and allocation is cleary defined and
published. This makes the processes simple to respond quickly and
informs applicants of their own rights and responsibilities.

Information such as domain names, IP network numbers, name servers,
contact persons, and network projects are collected into the JNIC
database to be retrieved via whois service. JNIC cooperates the
Internet NIC to keep the database consistent.

Current information services of JNIC are:

- documentation distribution (ftp, electronic mail, and postal mail)
- whois service (experimental)

Most of documentation is currently written in Japanese but we begin to
prepare English versions for Internet users. JNIC whois service has
similar functions to NIC.DDN.MIL whois. JNIC provides on-line services
on NIC.AD.JP and is reachable at JNIC@NIC.AD.JP. We are now trying to
concentrate all the information about Japanese networks available in
this machine, so that they could be accessed via various standard
methods including anonymous ftp.