The APNIC Elected Leaders series celebrates the journeys and contributions of individuals who have stepped up to serve in volunteer leadership roles, helping to advance Internet operations across the Asia Pacific region. Through their stories, we hope you’ll gain insight into what motivates them, feel more connected to our community, and be inspired to get involved and help shape the future of the Internet.
Akinori Maemura, Chief Policy Officer at JPNIC, has been a steady presence in Internet governance for more than two decades. A former ICANN Board member and long-serving Chair of the APNIC Executive Council (EC), he has played a pivotal role in shaping coordination across the Asia Pacific and beyond. But his journey began much earlier…
On a Friday back in 1994 (7 October to be precise), then an engineer at NEC’s Network Service Unit, Akinori was told to build an Internet service. Until then, he’d worked on X.25 packet switching. To him, TCP/IP was uncharted territory.
“Everything was new to me. I had virtually zero knowledge of TCP/IP,” Akinori recalls.
“I was solely appointed to develop the network.”
At the time, Japan’s commercial Internet was taking off. AT&T Jens, and the Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) had already opened the gates, and NEC decided to follow. What began as one engineer’s crash course in TCP/IP quickly led to bigger questions, such as how to coordinate the growing number of ISPs on issues like IP address and domain management, Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), and a Network Operator Group (NOG).
“ISPs were growing day by day. That meant thinking about how to coordinate the operational side at a much bigger scale, including commercial players,” Akinori says.
Learning by doing, together
Those early years were defined by modest links and big responsibility.
“9.6kbps PSTN lines, 10Mbps Ethernet, 100kbps interconnections — and the obligation to coordinate everything outside my own network,” he says.
“I may not follow every front-edge technology today, but I learned the entirety of the Internet — the technical pieces and the coordination that holds it together.”
That blend of engineering and collaboration would shape his next chapter.
Sixteen years on the EC, thirteen as Chair
Akinori went on to serve on the APNIC EC for 16 years (2000 – 2016), 13 of them as Chair.
“Back then, I thought it would never happen,” he laughs.
“I was still new to APNIC. Kuo-Wei Wu proposed me as Chair, but Che-Hoo Cheng had been there longer. It was unexpected.”
From that seat, he helped steer the Asia Pacific region’s Internet’s growing pains and breakthroughs: The formation of the Number Resource Organization (NRO), the Address Supporting Organization Address Council (ASO AC) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Internet Governance Forum, depletion of the available pool of IPv4, the Montevideo Statement, NETmundial, and the IANA stewardship transition.
“APNIC grew rapidly and faced one thing after another. I enjoyed working with the Secretariat, especially Paul Wilson [the then Director General], and those conversations built my competence.”
NRO NC
Building on decades of experience with APNIC and ICANN, Akinori has now returned to global Internet governance through the NRO Number Council. His appointment reflects both his knowledge of Internet coordination and his ongoing commitment to bringing community perspectives to international policy.
Reflecting on this appointment, Akinori says it feels like a return to some of the work he helped shape in the early 2000s.
“I am one of the few community members who was involved in the establishment of ICP-2 back in 2001. The current revision of ICP-2 is, in many ways, a revisit of global Internet coordination, and I hope as many community members as possible will take part in the process.”
“My term is only a year, but I do hope the EC reappoints me until this work is concluded. I also believe my six years of experience as the ASO AC appointee to the ICANN Board is beneficial to the AC.”
“Many in the APNIC community may not be so familiar with the ICANN process, but it is important that APNIC and ICANN processes remain consistent and sometimes work hand in hand.”
Bringing operators into policy
His advice for anyone who wants to contribute to APNIC’s Policy Development Process (PDP) is disarmingly simple: Show up, speak up, and don’t wait to be an expert.
“Before you submit anything, you can still participate — ask the proposer questions, listen to SIG Chairs and [community] members, comment on the fine points. Even a simple ‘I support this proposal’ may change the discussion,” he says.
And bring your real-world context.
“Assumptions in a proposal can be strange. Circumstances differ across economies. You need to tell people what they don’t know so the discussion can take it into account,” he notes.
Above all, keep the process inclusive.
“Community members must be treated equally regardless of English proficiency. I’m still improving my English and will do so forever. First, contribute; then keep improving,” he says.
Where newcomers should start
Forget titles. Start with people.
“The first step is to have community members know about you. Talk to as many as possible. Try to be liked. Show what you can do,” he says.
His own entry point was humble and practical.
“I couldn’t code at all at the beginning. What I did was translation — RFCs, RIPE documents, anything the operators needed to read to run better networks. I tried to contribute as many translations as possible,” he says.
What makes a good EC member
Technical knowledge helps, but trust and confidence from the community matter more.
“The EC oversees the APNIC Secretariat in the best interests of Members and the community,” he says.
“Yes, you’ll learn management and details of APNIC’s business, but the DG and executives handle a lot of that. More important is your attitude to serve — be accessible, talk to Members, hear their concerns.”
The steepest learning curve?
“Accountability. You need to understand APNIC’s business well enough to explain it to Members. That’s a challenge, especially at the beginning,” he says.
Balancing one’s employer with the wider community is less fraught than many fear.
“We’re here to run the Internet,” he says. “Few people are here just to procure resources. You’ll act in the spirit of mutual help.”
Looking ahead
Now JPNIC’s Chief Policy Officer, Akinori points to institutional housekeeping as a constant, necessary discipline.
“We’re running a totally different Internet than 25 years ago. Penetration has exploded; access speeds have transformed,” he says.
“As the Internet grows, institutionalization must catch up, as we’ve seen with ICP-2 and AFRINIC. Like any network you administer, if something is broken, change and fix it; if circuits are saturated, upgrade them. Things break. You fix them in time to maintain user confidence.”
He pauses, then adds one more line, equal parts encouragement and challenge:
“It is never boring — and it’s on you.”
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