In light of the recent disasters that have devastated Japan, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) today announced a plan to waive renewal fees for Japanese domain name holders who are unable to renew their .ORG domain names. Together with PIR, more than 15 participating Registrars have committed to automatically renew for one year at no cost the .ORG domain names that would unintentionally expire due to the inability of the owner in Japan to re-up their registration. Affected names will include those with expiration dates within the March 11—June 11, 2011 period.

“The recent earthquake in Japan and the destruction that followed has shocked and saddened everyone, including the Internet community,” said Brian Cute, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. “Survivors have been left without the basic necessities, let alone Internet capabilities. By waiving the renewal fees and working with our Registrars, we are protecting .ORG registrants in Japan from losing their domain names during a time when they and their country need to focus on sustaining and rebuilding. PIR’s goal, along with our valuable partners, is to assist in any way we can.”

Participating registrars include: GoDaddy.com Inc., Ascio, INDOM, WebNic.cc, Net 4 India Limited, Discount Domains Ltd., Fabulous.com, Blacknight Internet Solutions, Dotster, Inc., Moniker.com, Spirit Domains, Advanced Internet Technologies, Japan Registry Services Co., PSI-Japan, Network Solutions, NameSecure, TLDs L.L.C.

To view an up-to-date list of participating registrars, please visit http://pir.org/help/japan.