Japanese Amateur Radio license statistics

The March 2010 Japanese Amateur Radio license figures show a total of 3,299,954 licenses, but this figure should be viewed with care.

The figures as at March 31, 2010 are:

Class 1 - 26,683
Class 2 - 75,229
Class 3 - 195,122
Class 4 - 3,002,920

Grand Total 3,299,954

Japanese Class 4 is the equivalent of the UK Foundation (USA Tech) and gives access to HF, VHF and UHF with 10 watts output. Introduced in the late 1950's it was the first HF Amateur Radio license that did not require any Morse Code test.

Class 3 can be considered equivalent to UK Intermediate (USA General) and Classes 1 and 2 broadly equate to UK Advanced (USA Extra).

All the Amateur Radio operator licenses are Life-Time. A holder of a Class 1 license can also appear in the statistics of all the lower classes.

There is no automatic mechanism to discontinue the license in the event of an Amateur's death so the figures can be expected to include a proportion of Silent Key Amateurs.

As well as an operators license Japanese Amateurs need a station license to run their own station and there are currently about 450,000 issued. These reportedly cost an initial $120 and then $28 on every 5 yearly renewal.

Japanese Ministry of Information and Communications Statistics Database
http://tinyurl.com/35cw3rx

Japanese Amateur Radio Frequency bands
http://www.jarl.or.jp/English/2_Outline/A-2-2.htm

Japan Amateur Radio League, Inc. (JARL) in Google English
http://tinyurl.com/JapanJARL