After renewing a few names I started to realize that currently romaji (ASCII) .com & IDN .com domains are actually more expensive now than IDN.jp on the three biggest domain services sites. I don’t think this is going to immediately start a mass increase in domain registrations but it’s something to think about for future. .coms cost about 950 yen average ($10) while IDN .jps cost about 640 yen (about $7). If Verisign keeps this up the ccTLDs that lower their prices will be in a very good position to overtake registrations in their countries.

I think about domain marketing for the market I buy in. If dot coms get to $13 a year & .jps are only $7 then guess what the young people will register in Japan? While some people are wondering why IDN registrations are going down… Well lets just say Japanese do have a domaining industry it’s just a little bit different than one would expect.