Recent results on primary cosmic rays of energies above1×1019 eVobserved by the Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) are summarized. It is likely that extremely high energy cosmic rays are from diffuse sources distributed isotropically in the universe. However, there are cosmic rays of energies in excess of the predicted cutoff energy and some fraction of cosmic rays beyond4×1019 eVseem to come nearby sources composing double events within a limited space angle. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.