The Enigma of Japanese Call Sign System

Rimmei "Rin" Fukuda, JG1VGX / M0CFF / N1MH, the writer of the original version Ryota "Roy" Motobayashi, JJ1WTL / AC6IM

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



Tips

Prefix Two Parts of JR6, All of JS6—Okinawa (JR6AAA-QQZ are NOT Okinawa) JD1—Ogasawara 7J—Foreigners licensed 1985-1999 7K1-7N4—Included in Area 1 8J, 8N—Special Event Stations

Suffix Single Letter—Special events only Two Characters—Old timers, Special events RL—JARL Stations OSO,QRA-QTZ,SOS,TTT,XXX—Not Assigned YAA-ZZZ—Clubs Four Characters—Special events only Five Characters—Special events only

But the below will take you tons of exceptions!

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.
  
  
• Vanity Call Sign
  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.
  
  
• Special Prefix
  Never, even though the JARL petitioned for this at the FIFA Worldcup 2002.

No Vanity Call Signs

Currently we cannot reserve any 'wished' call sign (vanity) for either an individual or a club station, although it had been allowed in some cases in the past (very early years).

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 378,680 Stations as of Mar. 31, 2023 District Number of Amateur Stations Call Sign Reissue 1 Kanto 109,535 Yes, Twice 2 Tokai 47,284 Yes 3 Kinki 45,075 Yes 4 Chugoku 22,366   5 Shikoku 17,094   6 Kyushu 30,792 Yes 7 Tohoku 38,471   8 Hokkaido 33,746   9 Hokuriku 8,845   0 Shin'etsu 15,106   JR6 Okinawa 2,182   JD1 Ogasawara 157   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, 2023;  Counted Doubly, Triply or Quadruply among Four Classes)			3,165,127	272,163	85,869		35,146
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 \ 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	20W	50W	200W	50W	500W	50W
		Apart from the Station Address	1W	1W	(n/a)	1W	(n/a)	1W
	2,400M		2W	2W	2W	2W	2W	2W
		EME	20W	50W	200W	50W	300W	50W
	5,600M		2W	2W	2W	2W	2W	2W
		EME	20W	50W	200W	50W	300W	50W
	10.1G		2W	2W	2W		2W
	10.4G		2W	2W	2W	2W	2W	2W
		EME	20W	50W	200W	50W	300W	50W
	24G		2W	2W	2W	2W	2W	2W
		EME	20W	50W	50W	50W	50W	50W
	47G		0.2W	0.2W	0.2W	0.2W	0.2W	0.2W
		EME	20W	50W	50W	50W	50W	50W
	77G, 135G		0.2W	0.2W	0.2W		0.2W
	249G		0.1W

Detail allocated bands in Japan are HERE for those interested.

i.e. We have

• about 3,000,000 operator licensees (lifetime-valid),
• 370,653 station licensees⁽¹⁾ (an additional application needed, 5-year-valid),
• 65,918⁽²⁾ JARL members (¥7,200=$51⁽³⁾ per year), exchanging total
• 9,655,753 incoming QSL/SWL cards per year⁽⁴⁾, and
• 14,937 "CQ ham radio" magazine readers⁽⁵⁾ (ordinary ¥900=$6.4⁽³⁾, excluding comsumption tax, each month).

Where,

⁽¹⁾

as of Mar. 31, 2023

⁽²⁾

as of Mar. 7, 2023;
including
  53,089 regular members,
  1,334 club-station members,
  1,098 family members and
  10,397 associate members (e.g. station-license-expired members and SWLs).

⁽³⁾

USD 1 = JPY 140

⁽⁴⁾

FY2022 (Apr., 2022 - Mar., 2023);
including
  7,957,182 for domestic,
  1,113,265 for overseas and
  585,306 for non-members (to be discarded after a three-month storing)

⁽⁵⁾

Average, Jan. - June, 2018

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 \ 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?"

Recycled Call Signs

All patterns of the call sign recycling in Japan are as follows:

All Patterns of the Call Sign Recycling

	From	To
With the Occupation Forces
JA#$$	Individuals/clubs in the Allied Occupation forces stationed in Japan, issued 1949-52 (Changed to KA#$$)	The Japanese after 1952
	Example — JA3AA Tom Rothwell in Nagoya, now K6ZT Isaji Shima in Osaka
Reuse after the Separation from Areas 1 and 2 to 0 and 9 Respectively
JA1WA-ZZ	Individuals in current Area 0, issued 1952-54 (changed to JA0AA-DZ)	Individuals in current Area 1 in 1958
JA1WAA-WAF	Individuals in current Area 0, issued 1954-55 (changed to JA0EA-EF)	Individuals in current Area 1 in 1965
JA2WA-ZS	Individuals in current Area 9, issued 1952-54 (changed to JA9AA-DS)	Individuals in current Area 2 1957-58
For JARL
JA[3,4,6]RL	Individuals	JARL District Stations
JA[7,0]IGY	Individuals	Beacons
JA1YAA	Communication Museum	JARL Museum in 1991
JA[1,5,7]YRL	Clubs	JARL Support Stations
The Reuse
J[A,E-S] [1,2,3,6] [AAA-QQZ,QUA-XZZ]	Individuals	Individuals since 1985 in Area 1, 2, 3 and 6
	Example — JE1AAT issued in 1971 issued in 1985 issued in 2004
Failed Satellites
JQ1YGU	Cube Sat "SEED" failed to launch in 2006	Cube Sat "SEED" launched in 2008
JQ1ZWS	Cube Sat "WASEDA-SAT2," no signals in 2008	Cube Sat "WASEDA-SAT3," no signals again in 2017
Irregular — Rare Cases
JA1BF	Mr. Masunaga, JA1TV	Mr. Suzuki, JA1BFJ
JA1JG	Mr. Ooumi, JA1CET as his provisional license	Mr. Sakuma, JA3VO, for his use in Antarctica 1956-1958 as "Japanese Government"
JA1NZ	Mr. Oka	Mr. Ihara, JA1ADN
JA1BTT	Mrs. Kan, JA1YL	Mr. Ebina
JA1BWM	Mr. Sekiya	Mr. Watanabe
JJ1WUC	Mr. Kumagai, Son (SK)	Mr. Kumagai, Father, JM1RXM
JA3MX	Mr. Kitagawa, JA4GG es JA3AAC as his provisional license	Mr. Matsutani, JA3DAA
JA3NY	Mr. Yagi, JA3HW	Mrs. Yagi
JA3UB	Mr. Yoshitani, JA3IG	Mr. Nishikawa, JA3AVY
JA3BRG-BRL	Individuals in "Aviation & Aerospace Expo" for about seventy days in 1960	Other Individuals in 1960

Revised

Originally written on December 3, 1998 by Rimmei "Rin" Fukuda, JG1VGX and maintained until February 22, 2000.

Updated by Ryota "Roy" Motobayashi, JJ1WTL on Feb. 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27; Mar. 11, 15, 16, 21; Apr. 6, 20; June 15, 16; July 21; Aug. 4, 18; Sept. 5 in 2002;
Jan. 3; Feb. 22; May 25, 31; June 5, 12, 14, 20; Sept. 12, 13, 14, 17, 22; Oct. 12 in 2003;
Jan. 11, 17, 25; Feb. 24; June 7, 18, 20; July 4; Aug. 8 (sweeping revisions), 9, 11, 13, 14, 15; Sept. 10, 12, 16, 26, 28; Oct. 3, 8, 13, 14, 21, 26, 31; Nov. 3; Dec. 5, 9, 11, 17 in 2004;
Jan. 17; Feb. 20; Mar. 5, 6, 13, 19, 22; Apr. 4; May 23; June 4, 18; July 2, 22; Oct. 28; Nov. 5 in 2005;
Jan. 16; Feb. 7, 9, 22; Mar. 1, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 19, 27; Apr. 28; May 13, 19; June 10, 18; July 2, 16, 27; Aug. 19; Sept. 3, 25; Oct. 12; Dec. 1 in 2006;
Jan. 19, 27; Feb. 7, 9; Mar. 23, 25; Apr. 7, 22; May 1, 6, 12; July 30, Sept. 6, 17; Oct. 7, 8, 9, 13, 18, 20; Nov. 4, 21, 25, 26, 27, 30; Dec. 1, 16, 18, 24 in 2007;
Jan. 16, 17, 26,27; Feb. 1, 9 and 15 in 2008.

Splitted into 6 pages on Feb. 17, 2008

Disclaimer

I wrote this for the convenience of foreign amateurs who may want to know Japanese call sign system. Although I tried to provide correct information as far as I know, some of those may be outdated or incorrect. Readers should accept that I will not take any responsibility for any incorrect information.