Courtesy notice to other mail admins:
  If you don't have any email users who correspond with Japan, this is
not an issue for you, and skip on to the next message.

  If you do, there is a reasonable chance of your running into this, as
Docomo (docomo.ne.jp) is a cell-phone company and also one of the
bigger email providers in Japan (via WAP gateway.) Our users' mail to
that site has been getting deferred with "Connection refused", for
quite a few days now, maybe a couple weeks. Yesterday we found out
through the grapevine and have confirmed from a web page that Docomo
has decided to start charging ISPs and mail servers for access to their
mail servers as a [bizarre] spam prevention or deterrent strategy.
They officially want $150 per month per IP which is allowed to send
mail to them.

  This policy is not visible in any error message you will get from
trying to connect to them, nor in any obviously-linked web page. There
are no obvious clues that they have implemented this policy. I have no
idea how they think this could possibly work as a policy if it's not
announced; shades of Dr. Strangelove. ("What good is a Doomsday Weapon
if you don't tell anyone about it?") To confuse things further, the
block seems to be "leaky" - occasionally connections will get through,
sometimes not.

  Reportedly there may be a way around it by complaining and leaning on
them, and we're trying to find out if it that will work, though it's
hard to reach them. First because they're rejecting your mail, you
will have to do so through their upstream or via another Japanese
provider who can reach them, and second because it is not clear if any
of the people responsible for these decisions read English; our
Japanese speaking staff are translating the emails for them. Sites who
don't want to deal with this headache may want to consider "shunning"
them or bounce mail for the site immediately.

  -- Clifton

-- 
     Clifton Royston  --  LavaNet Systems Architect --  cliftonrlava.net
  "If you ride fast enough, the Specialist can't catch you."
  "What's the Specialist?" Samantha says. 
  "The Specialist wears a hat," says the babysitter. "The hat makes noises."
  She doesn't say anything else.  
                      Kelly Link, _The Specialist's Hat_

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