Jun Murai

From ETHW

Jun Murai
Fields of study
Computing

Biography

Jun Murai is considered the “Father of Japanese Internet” for establishing the Internet in his native country. In 1984, Dr. Murai deployed the Japanese University Network (JUNET), a computer network connecting Japanese universities that served as the cornerstone of Japan’s Internet. In 1988, Dr. Murai evolved JUNET into the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) Project. The WIDE project started the first transfer control protocol/Internet protocol (IP) network in the Asia-Pacific region and became the backbone of Japan’s Internet. The WIDE project also initiated standard Japanese character coding for the Internet, utilized by Japanese Internet users every day, and IPv6 (the next IP designed to alleviate eventual Internet address exhaustion). Dr. Murai was instrumental in launching Japan’s first Internet service provider and first Internet exchange point. He also has contributed to the internationalization of the Internet e-mail system.

An IEEE Associate Member, Dr. Murai is currently the dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University in Kanagawa, Japan.