Maemura Akinori

MAEMURAAkinori (前村昌紀) is Chief Policy Officer of JPNIC – Japan Network Information Center, a not-for-profit Internet promotion body and National Internet Registry for Japan.

Maemura has more than 30 years of career and experience in the Internet technical operations and coordination. He started the Internet career at NEC Corporation, Japan, to launch its ISP business, which is now known as BIGLOBE, as a network engineer in 1994. After that he got involved in the Internet Coordination among ISPs and associations, as the commercial Internet was emerging in Japan, including the establishment of JANOG, the Network Operators’ Group of Japan, and IP address management at JPNIC – Japan Network Information Center. Then his involvement expanded to the region when he was first elected to the Executive Council of APNIC, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, one of five Regional Internet Registries which administer the Internet number space for respective regions in 2000. He served as an EC member for 16 years, especially as the Chair of it for 13 years until February 2016. After that, he was elected to the Board of Directors of ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as an appointee of its ASO, Address Supporting Organization. He served as an ICANN Board Member for two terms, six years until 2022.

As the Chief Policy Officer of JPNIC, Maemura presides JPNIC’s consideration, coordination and communication of the Internet Policies as well as its external and international relations.

He also serves as a Board Director at JPCERT Coordination Center, the national computer incident response team in Japan, and as a Board Director at DotAsia Organisation since 2022 where he serves as the Chair of Board Financial Committee.

Last modified on 05/01/2025