I'm wondering if you think it's worth it for a non-citizen of Japan (I'm a U.S. citizen) to buy a .jp domain for long-term investment, hoping for resale several years in the future.
Thanks, @siravi. I'm asking because I was thinking of buying a .jp domain that doesn't have any relationship to my business, but that I think would be a good long-term investment.
Isn't it a bit like the .dot uk scenario where the .co.uk is far more popular. I think it is the same in japan where it's much harder to get the .co.jp than the far less popular but shorter jp. it's a case of historic usage
.jp names are expensive and I don't think the aftermarket is big really. There are not so many names registered for a country of 125 million inhabitants. Stats
Generally speaking, ccTLDs are specialized markets and Japan itself is a peculiar market. Without good knowledge of the local market I would not advise investing in .jp (if by investing you mean buying a sizable number of domain names). There are many more ccTLDs with more reported sales activity.
@Kate Thank you for the insight! That's good to know about the Japanese domains market. From the comments that you and other people have made on this thread, I think that I will stay away from investing in .jp domains for now. Thanks again!
I go to Japan regulary and can tell you that Japanese companies don't care much about domains. The main reason for this is because the fast majority of consumers go to Yahoo! search to search for their favorite websites instead of typing domains directly into their browser. Most advertisements in Japan show a "call to search" for this reason instead of a domain name as you can see here: https://www.instagram.com/p/7vLujHzAMU/?taken-by=doronvermaat