The .osaka Domain: A Zone With Its Nexus in the Contract
The .osaka domain represents the Osaka region of Japan and its ICANN agreement classifies it as a community extension. It entered the root zone on 4 December 2014 under a contract dated 4 September 2014. Delegation ran to Interlink Co., Ltd., while the present contracting party is Osaka Registry Co., Ltd. The zone holds 1,210 registrations with 996 in the zone file.
Restaurants, producers, accommodation businesses, cultural institutions and local government bodies in the region make up the registrant base. The eligibility requirement here is not a marketing theme but a condition written into the agreement itself. Try candidates in .osaka domain search and compare an unrestricted Japanese zone on the .okinawa page.
The agreement lists five routes to eligibility: local governments and administrative authorities in the region, public and private institutions there, organisations and businesses located there, residents of the region, and other community members with a bona fide purpose for registering and using the name. A registrant certifies that one of these applies and repeats that certification at each renewal term. The registry scans registration requests, conducts random checks and examines third-party complaints. Where the requirement is not met the name goes on hold for thirty days, then into a further thirty-day suspension, and is finally deleted with no refund of registration fees.
.OSAKA Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Osaka Registry Co., Ltd.
- Root zone entry 4 December 2014
- Agreement type Base, Community (Specification 12), Non-Sponsored
- Eligibility One of five criteria; certification repeats at every renewal
- Zone size 1,210 registrations, 996 in the zone file (nTLDstats, 13 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .osaka domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.osaka Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$41.50 /year -
Transfer
$41.50 /year -
Renewal
$45.65 /year -
Restore
$119.90 -
Late Renewal
$9.13
Included With Every .osaka Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
.osaka Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .osaka domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .osaka address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .osaka domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $9.13 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .osaka returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.osaka Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.osaka Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .osaka domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.osaka Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .osaka Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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Any one of five criteria is enough: local governments and administrative authorities in the region, public and private institutions there, organisations and businesses located there, residents of the region, or other community members with a bona fide purpose for registering and using the name. The last route widens the definition without removing oversight. Try .osaka domain search.
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No, it is required at renewal as well. A registrant re-certifies that one of the criteria applies for each subsequent renewal term, and the registry additionally scans registration requests and performs random checks. That turns the address into a long-term commitment: an operation considering a move out of the region may find this ending risky.
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The process is defined and staged. The name is placed on hold for an initial period of thirty days, and correcting the information during that window reactivates it immediately. If nothing is corrected, a further thirty-day suspension begins and the name is eventually deleted. No refund of registration fees is granted in that case, which makes accurate records a direct cost question.
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Yes, and the agreement is explicit. Following the wish of the Osaka prefectural government, pornographic, vulgar and highly objectionable content is strictly prohibited in the extension. The registry implements this through an acceptable use policy and an abuse point of contact published on its website, and registrars must pass the policy through to resellers and registrants.
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Because each extension takes its rules from its own agreement and registry policy. This zone is classified as a community extension with the nexus requirement written into the contract, while the neighbouring Japanese zone declares every natural person and entity eligible. Two city extensions in the same country therefore need not resemble each other. Compare on the .okinawa page.
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The zone holds 1,210 registrations with 996 of them in the zone file, so roughly four names in five are genuinely in use. Small, but far from dormant. The practical reading runs both ways: short meaningful labels may still be free, while a label that is taken is probably serving a real site. Check the record via whois search.
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