Appointment of IIJ Engineers as IESG & IAB Members; Mr. Bush as IESG Member and Dr. Hagino as IAB Member.

Business Editors

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2003

Internet Initiative Japan Inc. ("IIJ", NASDAQ: IIJI), Japan's leading Internet access and comprehensive network solutions provider, today announced that two of the Company's engineers were appointed as Members of IESG (Internet Engineering Steering Group) and IAB (Internet Architecture Board).

With the appointment, Mr. Randy Bush, Chief Scientist of IIJ America, acts as Member and Area Director of IESG and is responsible for Operations & Management area. Dr. Jun-ichiro Itojun Hagino, a researcher in the IIJ Laboratory serves as Member of IAB. The assignments are two-year terms and are effective from March 2003 until February 2005.

IESG and IAB are organizations of IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), which is a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers who are concerned with the evolution of the Internet's architecture and the smooth overall operation of the Internet. The IETF activities are grouped into eight areas, which are administered by the IESG Area Directors. The IAB is the organization that provides architectural oversight and adjudicates appeals of complaints.

Mr. Randy Bush was reappointed to the IESG position for the third time. Prior to joining the IIJ Group, Mr. Bush worked for AT&T, RAINet and Verio. He has over 35 years of experience in the computer industry, and has proactively contributed to the Internet's international community from its early days.

Dr. Jun-ichiro Itojun Hagino also acts a visiting associate professor at Japan's Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. In addition, Dr. Hagino is well-known as a core researcher of the KAME Project, an IPv6 project. Dr. Hagino holds a Ph.D degree in computer science from Keio University.

About IIJ

Founded in 1992, Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (IIJ, NASDAQ: IIJI) is Japan's leading Internet-access and comprehensive network solutions provider. The company has built one of the largest Internet backbone networks in Japan, and between Japan and the United States. IIJ and its group of companies provide total network solutions that mainly cater to high-end corporate customers. Services range from the delivery of new generation network services over an optical-fiber infrastructure that is optimized for data communications, to the construction of pan-Asian IP backbone networks. The company also offers high-quality systems integration and security services, Internet access, hosting/housing, and content design.

The statements within this release contain forward-looking statements about our future plans that involve risk and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Internet Initiative Japan Inc. with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports on Forms 20-F and 6-K, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.