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

	Area 2-5, 7-0	Area 6		Area 1
		Mainland	Okinawa	Mainland	Ogasawara
DXCC Entity	JA-JS Japan				JD1 Minamitorishima I.
					JD1 Iwo Is., Ogasawara Is.
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]1AAA-XZZ 7[K-N]2AAA-XZZ 7[K-N]3AAA-XZZ 7[K-N]4AAA-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	8J#$, 8J#*$, 8J#**$, 8J#***$, 8J#****$; 8N#$, 8N#*$, 8N#**$, 8N#***$, 8N#****$ Exceptions: - Antarctica: 8J1RL, 8J1RF - Satellites: 8J1JBS, 8J1JCS
JARL Stations	JA#RL JA[2,3,5,7,9]YRL JH4YRL JH8ZRL JR0ZAX	JA6RL JH6ZRL	JR6RL	JA1RL JA1YRL JA1YAA



Tips

PREFIXES 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

SUFFIXES 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

DESIGNATORS /JI#—Island Expedition /SO2005—Commemorating Special Olympics

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 Assignment — Yes, but based on the station address — the transmit location — only. Not on the mailing address and not on licensee's operator class.
• Vanity Call Sign — Never.
• Special-Event Call Sign — Yes, but the licensee is usually the JARL. And not the coordinator but the administrator directly issues the licence. Any format from 2×1 to 2×5 with an 8J or an 8N prefix is available — but the last character shall be a letter 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 474,339 Stations as of Dec. 31, 2009 District Number of Amateur Stations Call sign Reissue 1 Kanto 129,298 Yes, Twice 2 Tokai 64,938 Yes 3 Kinki 56,674 Yes 4 Chugoku 33,467   5 Shikoku 20,874   6 Kyushu 42,725 Yes 7 Tohoku 47,231   8 Hokkaido 43,147   9 Hokuriku 13,039   0 Shin'etsu 20,207   JR6 Okinawa 2,623   JD1 Ogasawara 116   Source: http://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/j/musen/index.htm

Population and major cities are HERE for those interested.

Area Definition Changes in Our Past — Birth of Area 0 and 9

From 1952 — when amateurs re-opened in Japan — to 1954, JA0 and JA9 didn't exist. Instead of that, JA1WA-ZZ, JA1WAA-ZZZ and JA2WA-ZZ, JA2WAA-ZZZ were allocated to these areas respectively. But the authority changed their mind to establish Area 0 and 9 at last, on Nov. 27, 1954:

Transition from JA1W and JA2W to JA0 and JA9

Year \ District	Shin'etsu			Hokuriku
	Allocated	Issued		Allocated	Issued
		as Provisional License	as License		as Provisional License	as License
1952
	JA1WA-ZZ, JA1WAA-ZZZ	JA1WA-ZZ, JA1WAA-WAF	JA1WA-ZZ, JA1WAA-WAF	JA2WA-ZZ, JA2WAA-ZZZ	JA2WA-ZZ, JA2WAA-WAF	JA2WA-ZS
: :
1954
	JA0			JA9
: :

Existing JA1WA-ZZ, JA1WAA-WAF and JA2WA-ZS were permitted to change to JA0AA-DZ, JA0EA-EF and JA9AA-DS respectively.

After that, vacated JA1WA-ZZ, WAA-WAF and JA2WA-ZS were recycled in the current first and second call areas as follows:

• JA1WA-ZZ
  • 1st .... Issued in Shin'etsu 1952-54, and changed to JA0AA-DZ
  • 2nd .... Re-issued in Kanto in 1958
• JA1WAA-WAF
  • 1st .... Issued in Shin'etsu 1954-55, and changed to JA0EA-EF
  • 2nd .... Re-issued in Kanto in 1965
  • 3rd .... Re-issued in Kanto in 2004
• JA2WA-ZS
  • 1st .... Issued in Hokuriku 1952-54, and changed to JA9AA-DS
  • 2nd .... Re-issued in Tokai in 1957-58

Consequently current JA1WA-ZZ stations are at least four years younger than the other two-letter suffix stations in Kanto (i.e. JA1AA-VZ, licensed 1952-54), and in addition, younger than the beginning part of JA1AAAs. When JA1WA-ZZ was re-issued — the authority gave them to applicans after January 1, 1958 — the three-letter suffix call signs had issued at least as JA1B$$ already in the first (Kanto) area. On the other hand, in the second (Tokai) area, still JA2M$s were issued when JA9 was defined.

Area Border Changes in Our Past

We had four merging of municipalities which crossed the call area borders and occurred slight midifications of them.



In the case of Fukuura-area, one station had to change his call sign from JA4BVQ to JA3JRP, about two years after the merger. Yamaguchi-village's case is as follows.

Former Yamaguchi-village

On Feb. 13, 2005, Yamaguchi-mura (or -village), in JCG#09004 Kiso-gun, Nagano-pref. was merged with Nakatsugawa-city (JCC#1906), Gifu-pref. across the call area border from Area 0 to Area 2. But for 29 hams in this area, the authority permitted to maintain their original 0 area call signs.


Each licensee was able to chose to change his/her call sign to a new one of Area 2, or not. In consequence, twenty hams kept their original 0 call signs, while nine hams switched their call signs to new ones as JQ2PIN-PIV.

Survived "0" Call Signs into Area 2 — 20 Licensees

JARL Member?	Operating HF?	Call Signs
Yes	Yes	JA0DTF, JA0GQP, JA0QWO
No		JE0GEX, ex-JH0CBL, JJ0JXI, ex-JR0SRS
	No, V,UHF Only	JE0JED, JF0VKE, ex-JG0EHF, JG0SIA, ex-JG0SIB, JH0JIA, JI0JFZ, ex-JJ0EYM, JJ0GGQ, JJ0GGR, JJ0GGT, JJ0GIC, JR0CZK





Newly Assigned "2" Area Call Signs — 9 Licensees

From ↓ To	JG0LOX ↓ JQ2PIT	JJ0BRW ↓ JQ2PIV	JJ0GGP ↓ JQ2PIN	JJ0GGS ↓ JQ2PIO	JJ0GIF ↓ JQ2PIP	JJ0JYI ↓ JQ2PIQ	JJ0KPL ↓ JQ2PIR	JJ0LIA ↓ JQ2PIU	JJ0LNK ↓ JQ2PIS

Operator Licence Classes — No Relations to Call Sign

There are four operator licence 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 here: http://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/menkyo/SearchServlet?pageID=0 in Japanese language, except licensee's name and his/her street address.

Search example: JJ1WTL

Operator License Classes

Class		4th	3rd	2nd		1st
# of Licensees (as of Mar. 31, 2010)		3,002,920	195,122	75,229		26,683
Increments in FY2009 (i.e. Apr., 2009 - Mar., 2010)		13,388 (real new comers)	6,577 (almost upgraded)	383 (almost upgraded)		618 (almost upgraded)
Maximum Output Power (See details below)		10W 20W (50-430MHz)	50W	200W		1kW
Mode	Phone / Digital	×	×	×		×
	CW		×	×		×
Band & Power				Fixed	Mobile (even Fixed Portable)	Fixed	Mobile (even Fixed Portable)
	135k	10W (EIRP 1W)	50W (EIRP 1W)	200W (EIRP 1W)	50W (EIRP 1W)	200W (EIRP 1W)	50W (EIRP 1W)
	1.9M, 3.5M, 3.8M, 7M	10W	50W	200W	50W	1kW	50W
	10M, 14M			200W	50W	1kW	50W
	18M		50W	200W	50W	1kW	50W
	21M, 24M, 28M	10W	50W	200W	50W	1kW	50W
	50M	20W	50W	200W	50W	500W (DX 1kW)	50W
	144M, 430M	20W	50W	50W (EME 200W)	50W	50W (EME 500W)	50W
	1200M	10W (1W apart from station address)	10W (1W apart from station address)	10W (EME 200W)	10W (1W apart from station address)	10W (EME 500W)	10W (1W apart from station address)
	2400M	2W	2W	2W (EME 100W)	2W	2W (EME 100W)	2W
	5600M, 10.1G, 10.4G, 24G	2W	2W	2W		2W
	47G, 77G, 135G	0.2W	0.2W	0.2W		0.2W
	249G	No written explicit regulation exists, but seems to be licensed as 0.1W

i.e. We have about

• 3,000,000 operator licensees (lifetime-valid),
• 470,000 station licensees (additional applications needed, 5-year-valid),
• 75,572 JARL members (¥7,200=$69 per year; including family members and SWLs) exchanging total
• 1,000,000 QSL cards per month, and
• 20,000 "CQ ham radio" magazine readers (ordinary ¥870=$8.29 per month).

Of course, the nomal upgrade path is 4th → 3rd → 2nd → 1st. (As you can imagine, in this case, he/she is counted as "4 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.

Allocated bands in Japan are HERE for those interested.

Code Test

We still have a Morse code test for the 3rd grade and higher. But it gradually became 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*.)

Where,
- CPM = Character per Minute.
  (1 WPM = 5 CPM in English, or 1 WPM = 4 CPM in Japanese.)
- *: 3rd Class Morse code test examples:
  (1) "How do you describe 7SENDAI using Morse code?" (followed by 4 pickings)
  (2) "If you want to stand-by immediately after your call, what brevity code should you transmit?" (followed by 4 pickings)

Recycled Call Signs

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

All Patterns of the Call Sign Recycling

	From	To
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
Some JA#RLs	Individuals	JARL District Stations
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
Some JA#IGYs	Individuals	Beacons
JA1YAA	Communication Museum	JARL Museum in 1991
Some JA#YRLs	Clubs	JARL Support Stations
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
JJ1WUC	Son (SK)	Father
JQ1YGU	Cube Sat "SEED" failed to launch in 2006	Cube Sat "SEED" launched in 2008

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.