Domain names ending with .jp up to 1 million

The number of registered Internet domain names that end with
Japan's country code of ''.jp'' has exceeded 1 million for the first
time, totaling 1,003,285 as of March 1, Japan Registry Services Co. said
Tuesday.
The figure jumped by some 104,000, or 12 percent, over the past
year amid increased use of weblogs by individuals and a growing number
of companies promoting their products through their new websites,
according to the Tokyo firm, whose chief task is domain name registration.
When the Internet was in its infancy in Japan, domain names that
end with ''co.jp'' for corporate use were most commonly used.
From February 2001, however, the total of Japan-specific domain
names began rising at a steady pace partly because it became possible to
use Japanese and Chinese characters in URLs, the company added.
-kyodo