March 17, 2005

Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications

MIC announces results of invitation to comment concerning partial amendment of Details of Regulations for Telecommunications Numbers




The MIC invited comments and information between January 17 and February 16, 2005, concerning a draft partial amendment of area codes and inner city codes in certain regions, as shown in annex list No.1 of the Details of Regulations for Telecommunications Numbers (MPT Announcement No. 574, 1997), and received 13 comments.

The MIC took the comments on the draft amendment into consideration and decided not to go ahead with the number changes for number zone code 201 (0287-DE) (Nasu Shiobara City and Nasu Town) at this time. But other than that,the MIC will carry out the amendment as per the original draft.

This announcement is to be amended as a measure to address the shortage of inner city codes in certain regions, and will increase the number of available inner city codes by changing the number of digits in area codes and inner city codes, as well as standardize area codes in some regions (including those resulting from mergers of cities, towns or villages).

In addition, with regard to the regions where there are changes in region names due to mergers of cities, towns or villages, the amendment is planned at the beginning of April, after the listing of number zones has been brought up to date.

For details refer to the Japanese web site
http://www.soumu.go.jp/s-news/2005/050317_2.html


For further information about this press release, please contact:

International Policy Division, International Affairs Department
Telecommunications Bureau
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
Tel: (03) 5253-5920 Fax: (03) 5253-5924

Or visit
http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/contact.html to fill in the inquiry form.