Gonbei Review 2026. Is gonbei.jp good web hosting in Japan?

📄 Editorial Review

(3*) 🔧 Services: Web HostingDomain Registration ICANN registrar
⇔ Redirected from interlink.or.jp
Gonbei Domain is a long-established Japanese domain registrar and hosting provider operated by Interlink Co., Ltd. Interlink was incorporated on April 7, 1992, entered the Internet service business in 1995, and launched the Gonbei domain-registration service in April 2002. The company became Japan's eighth ICANN-accredited registrar in October 2006 and operates under IANA registrar ID 277. Its headquarters are in Toshima-ku, Tokyo, and Tadashi Yokoyama serves as Representative Director. Yokoyama joined Interlink in 1995 and became representative director in 2000.

Domains are the centerpiece of Gonbei's business. The registrar handles 1,107 domain extensions, covering conventional generic extensions, Japanese domains, internationalized domains and a particularly broad selection of country-code TLDs. This makes Gonbei especially useful for businesses expanding into foreign markets, organizations protecting trademarks internationally, and customers that need country domains with registration procedures or eligibility requirements that many mainstream registrars do not handle.

Japanese domain registration is particularly strong. Gonbei is an authorized designated operator for JPRS and supports general .jp domains as well as organizational extensions such as .co.jp. General .jp registrations require a Japanese address, while .co.jp is designed for companies registered in Japan and generally remains limited to one qualifying domain per organization. DNSSEC DS-record registration is also available for supported JP domains.

An important privacy-policy change took effect on August 24, 2026. Changes to the standard Whois Guard service are no longer accepted, and Whois Guard cannot be enabled again after it has been removed from an existing domain. The separate JP Whois Guard service continues for eligible general and prefectural JP domains at JPY 1,100. Gonbei has also discontinued its own Whois domain-search service, with registration-data searches now handled through ICANN RDDS facilities.

Domain-management features include automatic renewal, Free DNS, managed DNS, website forwarding and email forwarding. Free DNS allows customers to manage A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT, NS, SRV and CAA records. Customers needing DNS hosting for domains registered elsewhere can use Omakase DNS, which supports primary/secondary or secondary-only DNS configurations.

Gonbei also provides conventional shared web hosting through Rental Server 1000 and Rental Server 2000. These are FreeBSD shared-hosting plans rather than VPS or dedicated-server products. Rental Server 1000 includes 15 GB of combined website, email and database storage with support for five domains, while Rental Server 2000 increases the allocation to 30 GB and permits up to 30 domains.

The hosting environment includes nginx with Apache 2.4, PHP 8.x, .htaccess support, mod_rewrite, SSH2, SFTP, FTPS for the initial domain, cron jobs, a browser-based file manager, WordPress installation, EC-CUBE, concrete5, MySQL, SQLite, phpMyAdmin, HTTP/2, SNI SSL, free SSL certificates, commercial SSL certificates and WAF protection. Customers can create as many as 200 databases.

Email hosting is comprehensive for this price category. Accounts include unlimited email addresses together with SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, webmail, forwarding, mailing lists, antivirus protection, spam filtering and DNSBL filtering. Outbound email is subject to an approximate limit of 250 messages every 15 minutes.

Security and administration options include two-factor authentication, foreign-IP filtering, login-history inspection, DKIM, DMARC and Let's Encrypt certificate installation. The main hosting specification continues to reference MySQL 5.7, while the current administration environment includes MySQL 8.0 procedures, so customers deploying software with strict database-version dependencies should confirm the database environment of a new account before migration. Some secondary language runtimes are considerably older, including Python 2.7 and Ruby 2.5, while PHP itself is maintained on the 8.x branch.

The transfer guideline is unusually generous for shared hosting at 900 GB per day. It remains a shared environment rather than dedicated bandwidth, but the allowance should be sufficient for most conventional business websites. SSH access and the number of administrative tools also make Gonbei more suitable for technically experienced customers than many simplified entry-level hosting services.

SSL certificates are available separately through JPRS, with DV, OV and wildcard options. Standard hosting customers can also use free Let's Encrypt certificates when commercial validation is unnecessary.

The service is strongly focused on Japan. Product prices are quoted in Japanese yen (JPY) and Japanese consumption tax is included where applicable. The ordering system, administration interfaces and support documentation are primarily Japanese. No complete multi-language/localized customer interface exists, so international customers who do not read Japanese may find account management considerably more difficult despite Gonbei's unusually international domain portfolio.

The website itself retains a traditional, information-dense Japanese design. It is functional and contains substantial technical detail, but its navigation and visual presentation are noticeably more old-fashioned than those of newer international domain and hosting platforms.

💰 Price & Cost

Domain pricing varies substantially because Gonbei handles more than one thousand extensions, including country domains with unusual registry requirements and higher-cost specialist TLDs. Representative pricing includes JPY 2,530 per year for .com, JPY 3,124 per year for .jp, and JPY 5,720 per year for .co.jp. Registration and renewal costs are maintained separately for each extension, so customers should check the long-term renewal cost of a specific TLD before ordering.

Shared hosting has a simple structure. Rental Server 1000 costs JPY 1,100 per month including tax, while Rental Server 2000 costs JPY 2,200 per month including tax.

A significant advantage is the maximum two-month free trial available with the hosting service. Cancellation during the trial period results in no hosting fee, which gives customers time to test the environment before committing to regular monthly billing.

Domain registrations do not have a comparable general money-back guarantee. Once a domain-registration process has started, it normally cannot be canceled and the registration charge is not refundable. When a registry itself rejects a registration, the remaining balance may be returned after applicable administration expenses and refund fees.

Hosting payment options include credit cards, NTT combined billing and bank-account direct debit. Supported credit-card brands include Visa, MasterCard, JCB, American Express, DC, NICOS and Saison. NTT billing can require identification procedures, while bank-account direct debit involves additional paperwork.

Additional domain services include JP Whois Guard at JPY 1,100, Omakase DNS at JPY 1,100 per domain per month, website forwarding at JPY 2,750 per year and email forwarding at JPY 1,320 per year.

🏢 Data Center

The hosting platform uses FreeBSD with RAID10 or an equivalent redundant disk configuration. Accounts are shared and customers do not receive root access.

Gonbei's authoritative DNS infrastructure has useful network diversity. Free DNS operates through gdns1.interlink.or.jp and gdns2.interlink.or.jp. The first is routed through AS2514, NTT PC Communications, while the second is located within AS9370, SAKURA Internet's Tokyo-region network. Using separate network environments for authoritative DNS reduces dependence on a single routing platform.

A percentage-based hosting uptime guarantee/SLA is not part of the current Rental Server 1000/2000 terms. Businesses that require a contractual 99.9%, 99.99% or higher availability commitment should take this into account.

Storage redundancy should also not be treated as a replacement for backups. Customers running important websites should maintain their own independent copies of website files and databases.

✍️ Customer Support

Customer support is primarily web based. Gonbei maintains extensive procedures for domain registration, renewal, DNS configuration, transfers, restoration, payment changes and server administration, together with account-based inquiry functions and maintenance information.

Hosting documentation covers WordPress, SSL, email configuration, databases, SSH, WAF, DNS, security controls and other operational tasks. This is particularly useful with Gonbei because country-code domain rules can vary substantially between registries.

A corporate telephone number is available, although normal customer assistance is centered on the online support and inquiry system rather than a traditional 24/7 telephone help desk.

Support and documentation are principally in Japanese. This is adequate for the domestic market but represents an important limitation for customers outside Japan who need English-language technical assistance.

🔨 Control Panel

Gonbei uses proprietary account-management tools rather than cPanel or Plesk. Customer administration is divided mainly between My Menu and the Server Control Panel.

My Menu handles customer-account functions including personal or corporate details, billing, payment-method changes, domain renewal, automatic renewal and Domain Manager functions. Domain customers also use this environment for DNS and related domain-service configuration.

The Server Control Panel handles shared-hosting administration, including domains, files, email accounts, redirects, databases, resource information and security functions. phpMyAdmin is available separately for MySQL database management.

The control environment provides a good range of functions, although customers accustomed to cPanel or Plesk will need to adapt to Gonbei's own layout and Japanese terminology.

🎯 Conclusion

Gonbei Domain is particularly strong as a specialist registrar. Its 1,107 supported domain extensions, 1992 company history, ICANN accreditation, JPRS relationship, extensive country-domain coverage, DNS management and specialized ccTLD procedures distinguish it from conventional low-cost registrars.

The hosting service is suitable for conventional websites and smaller business projects. PHP 8.x, SSH, WAF, HTTP/2, WordPress support, Let's Encrypt SSL, unlimited email accounts and a maximum two-month free trial create a solid package at JPY 1,100 or JPY 2,200 per month.

There are nevertheless some limitations. Storage remains modest at 15 GB or 30 GB, several secondary runtime versions are old, the MySQL documentation is not completely synchronized, and there is no percentage-based uptime SLA for the shared hosting plans. Gonbei is also not the right platform for customers specifically seeking VPS, cloud or dedicated-server infrastructure.

For Japanese customers who want domains, DNS, SSL and conventional shared hosting from one established provider, Gonbei remains a practical choice. Its greatest advantage is the breadth of its international domain-registration capability, while the older interface and Japanese-focused customer experience are the principal compromises.

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