JA Call Sign Rules — Summary DXCC Entity JA-JS Japan JD1

Minamitorishima I. JD1

Iwo Is.,

Ogasawara Is. Area 2-5, 7-0 Area 6 Area 1 Mainland Okinawa Mainland Ogasawara Individuals JA#AA-ZZ

J[A,E-S]#AAA-XZZ JA6AA-ZZ

J[A,E-Q]6AAA-XZZ



JR6AAA-QQZ JR6AA-NZ





JR6QUA-XZZ

JS6AAA-XZZ JA1AA-ZZ

J[A,E-S]1AAA-XZZ



7[K-N][1-4]AAA-XZZ

JD1AAA-XZZ Clubs J[A,E-O,Q-S]#YAA-ZZZ J[A,E-O]6YAA-ZZZ J[R,S]6YAA-ZZZ J[A,E-O,Q-S]1YAA-ZZZ JD1YAA-ZZZ Repeaters JR#WA-WZ, VA-VZ

JP#YAA-YZZ JR6WA-WZ, VA-VZ

JP6YAA-YZZ JR6YA-YZ

JQ6YAA-YZZ JR1WA-WZ, VA-VZ

JP1YAA-YZZ Remote Controllers

for Repeaters JP#ZAA-ZZZ JP6ZAA-ZZZ JQ6ZAA-ZZZ JP1ZAA-ZZZ Foreigners

(First Licensed 1985-1999) 7J[2,3]AAA-CZZ

7J[4,5,7-0]AAA-BZZ 7J6AAA-BZZ 7J6CAA-CZZ 7J1AAA-DZZ Foreigners' Clubs

(First Licensed 1993-1999) 7J#YAA-YMZ 7J6YAA-YMZ 7J6YNA-YQZ 7J1YAA-YMZ Special Event Stations, and

ARISS School Contact Stations 8[J,N]#$, 8[J,N]#*$, 8[J,N]#**$, 8[J,N]#***$, 8[J,N]#****$



Exceptions:

- Antarctica: 8J1RL, 8J1RF

- Satellite: 8J1JCS JARL Stations JA#RL

JA[2,3,5,7,9]YRL

JH4YRL

JH8ZRL

JR0ZAX JA6RL

JH6ZRL JR6RL JA1RL

JA1YRL

JA1YAA

Regulatory Bases Each Japanese amateur call sign has a two-letter prefix and two- or three-letter suffix, separated by a numeral(1-0) indicating the geographic region (1-0, Okinawa, Ogasawara). "Somusho," or "Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC)" — the FCC equivalent — maintains Japan's call sign system in "Assignment Criteria of Identification Signals," in "Radio Law Related Screening Criteria," defined by MIC for their internal use as Instruction No. 67, Jan. 2001. Radio Law Related Screening Criteria

(Not Internet available but sold) Appendix 3 in it:

Assignment Criteria of Identification Signals

Assignment Systems (Comparing with the US) Sequential Call Sign

Yes, but it is based on the station address — the transmit location — only.

It is not affected by either the mailing address or the licensee's operator class.





Yes, but it is based on the station address — the transmit location — only. It is not affected by either the mailing address or the licensee's operator class. Vanity Call Sign

Never.





Never. Special-Event Call Sign

Yes, but the licensee shall be not an indivitual but an organization. And the administrator directly issues the license — not by a coordinator. Any format call sign from 2×1 to 2×5 with an 8J or an 8N prefix is available — except a three-letter suffix QRA-QTZ . The last character shall be a letter ( A - Z ) according to ITU RR 19.68.





Yes, but the licensee shall be not an indivitual but an organization. And the administrator directly issues the license — not by a coordinator. Any format call sign from 2×1 to 2×5 with an or an prefix is available — except a three-letter suffix . The last character shall be a letter ( - ) according to ITU RR 19.68. Special Prefix

Never, even though the JARL petitioned for this at the FIFA Worldcup 2002.

No Vanity Call Signs

However, special call signs for special event stations are available on request. (e.g. 8J1HAM for the event station at Tokyo Ham Fair in our past.)

Regions and Numerals The figure below represents the location and the population of each call area.

Call Areas and Populations This tells you how easy to make contacts with some areas and how difficult to do with the others (e.g. Area 9). Area 1 is the most densely populated area. It is amazing nearly one third of people are there. The real number of amateur stations in each area is as follows: Number of Amateur Stations in Each Call Area Total 427,070 Stations as of Mar. 31, 2018 District Number of

Amateur Stations Call Sign Reissue 1 Kanto 121,574 Yes, Twice 2 Tokai 56,822 Yes 3 Kinki 51,323 Yes 4 Chugoku 26,692 5 Shikoku 19,584 6 Kyushu 36,316 Yes 7 Tohoku 44,894 8 Hokkaido 38,854 9 Hokuriku 10,563 0 Shin'etsu 17,871 JR6 Okinawa 2,440 JD1 Ogasawara 137 Source: http://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/j/musen/index.htm Population and major cities are HERE for those interested. Area Number Inversions Call-area-number inversions rarely happened so far, and now, as follows. Area Number Inversions Call Sign in Actual Area Period Reason 8J1WJ 2 1971 Special-event station for The 13th Boy Scouts World Jamboree 8J90XPO 3 1990 Special-event station for The International Garden and Greenery Expo 8J2000 1 2000 Specal-event stations for millennium celebration 8N2000 8M2000 JA0DTF 2 Since 2005 Wishers to maintain his/her original "0" call sign after a call area border relocation, related to a merging of municipalities acrossing it



(Other expired twelve call signs so far:

JA0GQP, JG0SIB, JH0CBL, JH0JIA, JI0JFZ, JJ0EYM, JJ0GGQ, JJ0GGR, JJ0GGT, JJ0GIC, JJ0JXI, JR0SRS) JA0QWO JE0GEX JE0JED JF0VKE JG0SIA JJ0JXI JR0CZK 8N23WSJ 4 2015 Special-event station for The 23rd Boy Scouts World Jamboree

Operator License Classes — No Relations to Call Sign There are four operator license classes in JA, but no relations between a call sign and them. Instead of using the call sign formats for the classification, each station's licensed maximum output power and bands are disclosed by the Administration's "The Radio Use Web Site" here: http://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/musen/SearchServlet?SK=2&DC=100&SC=1&pageID=3&CONFIRM=0&SelectID=1&SelectOW=01#result in Japanese language, except licensee's name and his/her street address. Search example: JJ1WTL Classes and Restrictions Operational bands and limits of output power are as follows for each class. The ratio of licensed powers is as follows (as of Aug. 2, 2014).



Operator License Classes Class 4th 3rd 2nd 1st # of Licensees

(as of Mar. 31, 2019;

Counted Doubly, Triply or Quadruply among Four Classes) 3,120,290 249,893 81,698 33,495 Maximum Output Power by the Ordinance

(Details below) 10W (21-30 and ≤8MHz) 20W (>30MHz) 50W 200W No Limit Operational Bands by the Ordinance

(Details below) 21-30 and ≤8MHz >30MHz ≥18MHz and ≤8MHz No Limit No Limit Mode Phone / Digital × × × × CW × × × Band & Power Fixed/Mobile

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Special Condition Fixed Mobile

(even Fixed Portable) Fixed Mobile

(even Fixed Portable) 135k 10W 50W 200W 50W 200W 50W Further Restriction Measured in EIRP 1W (d[m]/100[m])2 W, within a 100m distance ‘d’ from a railroad 472k 10W 50W 200W 50W 200W 50W Further Restriction Measured in EIRP 1W With consent by all residents within a 200m distance 1.9M, 3.5M, 3.8M, 7M 10W 50W 200W 50W 1,000W 50W 10M, 14M 200W 50W 1,000W 50W 18M 50W 200W 50W 1,000W 50W 21M, 24M, 28M 10W 50W 200W 50W 1,000W 50W 50M 20W 50W 200W 50W 500W 50W For Overseas QSO

within 50-51.5MHz 1,000W 144M, 430M 20W 50W 50W 50W 50W 50W EME 200W 500W 1,200M 10W 10W 10W 10W 10W 10W EME 200W 500W Apart from the Station Address 1W 1W (n/a) 1W (n/a) 1W 2,400M 2W 2W 2W 2W 2W 2W EME 100W 100W 5,600M, 10.1G, 10.4G, 24G 2W 2W 2W 2W 47G, 77G, 135G 0.2W 0.2W 0.2W 0.2W 249G No explicit written regulation exists, but seems to be licensed as 0.1W Detail allocated bands in Japan are HERE for those interested. i.e. We have about 3,000,000 operator licensees (lifetime-valid),

operator licensees (lifetime-valid), 427,070 station licensees (1) (an additional application needed, 5-year-valid),

station licensees (an additional application needed, 5-year-valid), 65,788 (2) JARL members (¥7,200=$65 (3) per year), exchanging total

JARL members (¥7,200=$65 per year), exchanging total 10,128,079 incoming QSL/SWL cards per year (4) , and

incoming QSL/SWL cards per year , and 15,224 "CQ ham radio" magazine readers(5) (ordinary ¥898=$8.2(3), excluding comsumption tax, each month). Where, (1) as of Mar. 31, 2018 (2) as of Mar. 7, 2018;

including

56,159 regular members,

1,458 club-station members,

1,492 family members,

6,679 associate members (e.g. station-license-expired members and SWLs),

1 honorary member (JA1AN) and

16 supporting members (3) USD 1 = JPY 110 (4) FY2017 (Apr., 2017 - Mar., 2018);

including

8,379,977 for domestic,

1,220,229 for overseas and

527,873 for non-members (to be discarded after a three-month storing) (5) Average, Jan. - June, 2017 Of course, the nomal upgrade path is 4th → 3rd → 2nd → 1st. (As you can imagine, in this case, he/she is counted as "four operator licensees" in the above table.) On the other hand, some professional radio licensees can establish a ham radio station without any of these four amateur classes. Eligible Professional Licensees Considered as First-Class Radio Operator for General Services | | | * |-Second-Class Radio Operator for General Services | | Amateur First-Class Radio Operator | | | |-Third-Class Radio Operator for General Services | | | | | | : # Amateur Second-Class Radio Operator | | | |-Aeronautical Radio Operator | : | +-Maritime First-Class Radio Operator | +-Maritime Second-Class Radio Operator | | # | | |-Maritime Fourth-Class Radio Operator : First-Class Technical Radio Operator for On-the-Ground Services | | * | | +-Second-Class Technical Radio Operator for On-the-Ground Services | : Amateur Fourth-Class Radio Operator

Histrical Transitions Licenses We have four classes: Code Test The Morse code test was eliminated on Oct. 1, 2011 at last in JA too, after gradually having become easy: Transition of JA's Morse Code Test (and Classes) Elements

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Effective on Japanese English (No Code) TX RX TX RX TX RX TX RX June 30, 1950

(Radio Regulatory Commission

Rules #6

of June 30, 1950) 1st (Old) 2nd 50 CPM for 5 min. 60 CPM for 5 min. No Code Nov. 5, 1958

(Ministerial Ordinance #28

of Nov. 5, 1958) 1st (New) 2nd Telegraph Telephone ↓ ↓ 45 CPM for 5 min. 25 CPM for 5 min. No Code Dec. 28, 1964

(Ministerial Ordinance #27

of Dec. 28, 1964) 50 CPM for 3 min. 60 CPM for 3 min. 45 CPM for 2 min. 25 CPM for 1 min. Jan. 1, 1985

(Ministerial Ordinance #50

of Dec. 24, 1984) ↓ Nov. 18, 1988

(Ministerial Ordinance #70

of Nov. 18, 1988) ↓ ↓ ↓ May 1, 1990

(Ministerial Ordinance #18

of Mar. 31, 1990) 1st (New) 2nd 3rd 4th ↓ ↓ ↓ 25 CPM for 2 min. No Code Apr. 1, 1996

(Ministerial Ordinance #75

of Oct. 6, 1995) Oct. 1, 2005

(Ministerial Ordinance #95

of May 24, 2005) 25 CPM for 2 min. 25 CPM for 2 min. (In the "regulation" test part*) Oct. 1, 2011

(Ministerial Ordinance #48

of May 17, 2011) (In the "regulation" test part*) (In the "regulation" test part*) Where,

- CPM = Character per Minute.

1 WPM = 5 CPM in English, or

1 WPM = 4 CPM in Japanese (e.g. ‘mo’: — · · — ·).

- *: Examples (followed by four pickings):

(1) "How do you describe 7SENDAI using Morse code?"

(2) "If you want to stand-by immediately after your call, what brevity code should you transmit?"