eJapan Award Rules

You will be able to print your certificate on your own printer (This is a representative sample of a walnut plaque available for an additional fee. Actual plaque may differ slightly in wording or construction.)
Purpose
1. The eJapan award has been established to provide an incentive to amateur radio operators around the world to make contact with amateurs in the 10 call areas of Japan, the islands of Ogasawara and Minami Torishima, and the Japanese Antarctica stations.
Eligibility
2. The eJapan Award is available to Amateur Radio operators throughout the world who have EITHER: Bronze or Silver membership with Authenticity Guaranteed status, OR Platinum or Gold membership 3. Applicants can be individuals, or a club station, subject to Rule 14. 3a. If an applicant is combining credits from multiple attached accounts, the account used for the application must have earned at least one (1) of the credits. 3b. For any given number of credits, this eAward can only be earned once per applicant, regardless of attached callsigns. Exceptions may be made by request to the AwardMaster for cases of permanent callsign change or permanent QTH relocation, etc. (This rule is made to discourage applicants from applying repeatedly at the same level with every one of their attached callsigns.)
Fees
4. The award is free. Free certificates will be available for downloading from eQSL.cc, once the AwardMaster has approved the application with at least the minimum number of credits. 5. An additional certificate will be available for call areas above the minimum number. Applicants may watch the Standings and check the My Awards page for the status of pending applications, plaque orders, and next levels of the award. An attractive walnut plaque is also available. See the My Awards screen for current price including shipping to your location.
Procedures
6. When a user has met the eligibility requirements, the 'Application' button in My Awards will become available. 7. The user may then fill out an application online which will be sent to the AwardMaster, who will confirm that all rules and requirements have been met. 8. Standings may be viewed at any time on the Standings page also available through the My Awards page. Certificates and plaques can be ordered from that page as well.
Qualifying Proof of Contact
9. Awards are available for proof of contact with 10 call areas of Japan, the JD1 call area that includes Ogasawara, Minami Torishima, and the Antarctica stations 8J1RL and 8J1RF. 10. Proof of contact is defined as an eQSL card received from another ham with an approved Authenticity Guaranteed certificate. No credit will be given for eQSL cards sent. This is an important point. 10a. The AwardMaster for this award may determine at his sole discretion whether the eQSLs received are adequately matched by OUTGOING eQSLs sent by the applicant to confirm the credits applied for. A large number of unconfirmed eQSLs is against the spirit of the eQSL system and should be fixed by uploading your entire log, or by carefully confirming each valid incoming eQSL and rejecting each eQSL that does not match your log! 11. To qualify, an eQSL cannot have been rejected by the recipient prior to issuance of the award, and cannot have been retracted by the sender due to an error. 12. Proof of two-way communication (contacts) must be in the form of retrievable eQSL cards. eQSL cards that have been deleted from the eQSL.cc database will not be accepted as proof of contact. 13. No proofs of contact other than eQSL cards posted to the eQSL.cc database will be permitted. 14. All eQSL cards used as proof of contact must be posted in the eQSL.cc database to one or more callsigns owned by the applicant. In the case of multiple callsigns, these must be attached to each other and must meet all other requirements of these rules. The purpose of combining credit from multiple attached accounts is to allow an applicant to qualify for the award even if he moved or operated under different callsigns. It is not intended to allow an applicant to mix credits earned by an individual with credits earned by a multi-op club station.
Qualifying Contacts
15. Contacts may have been actually made at any date in the past so long as an eQSL card has been posted to the applicant, who held a valid amateur radio license with that callsign on the date of the QSO. 16. The term CALL AREA as used in this award shall consist of a lookup of the 3 character PREFIX plus the COUNTRY against a stored copy of the JARL Call Area and Prefecture Map. In addition to call areas 0-9 from the official list, we define call area 10 to consist of a PREFIX of JD1 and a COUNTRY of Ogasawara or Minami Torishima. We define call area 11 to consist of a PREFIX of 8J1 and a COUNTRY of Antarctica. These definitions may inadvertently rule out some special event callsigns if they do not conform to this format. The AwardMaster shall have final say over which stations are granted credit in cases of exceptions to the definitions herein. 17. All contacts must be made with amateur stations working in the authorized amateur bands or with other stations licensed or authorized to work amateurs. 18. Contacts made through repeaters, satellites, and other power relay methods are permitted, and stations contacted may be either land-based or mobile from automobiles, ships and boats, or aircraft, so long as they were within the official boundaries of the State indicated in their profile during the contact. However, because of the unfair advantage Internet-linked QSOs (such as IRLP, EchoLink, or eQSO) have over pure RF QSOs, they cannot be counted for this award. 19. In the case of Japanese applicants, all stations must have been contacted by the applicant from within the same Japanese call area. For non-Japanese applicants, all credits must have been earned from within the same Country. The location of any station shall be defined as the location of the transmitter. For the purposes of this award, remote operating points must be located within the same call area as the transmitter.
Fraud
20. The use of fraudulent eQSLs for fictitious contacts may result in disqualification of both the applicant and the sender of the eQSL card. Any holder of an eJapan award who knowingly submits fraudulent eQSLs will forfeit the right to continued eJapan membership. 21. Any person who fraudulently registers himself as another person in order to create eQSL cards will be disqualified as above.
Authority
22. The AwardMaster will have sole discretion to accept or deny applications for this award, based on available evidence supporting or denying the validity and authenticity of confirmation eQSLs. 23. The AwardMaster will have final authority over any disputes regarding this award, and may amend the rules at any time to provide further clarification of disputed or unclear issues. 24. The management of eQSL.cc will appoint the AwardMaster.
History of Revisions
10Aug2015 Modified Rule 5 to direct user to My Awards page for current price of plaques due to international shipping increases
05Jan2023 Added Rule 10a