Japan's Immigration Services Agency has proposed deleting a category of the Designated Activities notice that, by its own count, has drawn no new entrants since 2018 and no residents since 2020. The draft removes item 15, which covered foreign university students giving lectures on international cultural exchange at Japanese schools.
What the category allowed
Item 15 of the Ministry of Justice notice on Designated Activities (Notice No. 131 of 1990), the list of activities the Justice Minister sets in advance under the immigration law, has covered students enrolled in degree programmes abroad, excluding correspondence courses. They took part in an international cultural exchange project run by a local government that met set requirements. Under a contract with a Japanese public or private body, they were paid to lecture on international cultural exchange at elementary, junior high, high, secondary, special-needs, vocational or miscellaneous schools. The lecturing had to fall in a period when their own university held no classes for them, and last no more than three months.
Why the agency wants it gone
The agency says the item was created in 2005 and few foreign nationals have sought the status since. It calls actual use extremely limited: the number of new entrants since 2018, the earliest year statistics can confirm, and the number of foreign residents since 2020 are both zero.
The draft is narrow. It deletes item 15 and Appendix 4, which set the local-government requirements: support including housing for the student, management of entry and stay, and a clear definition of the place, period and pay for the lectures. The draft table marks the other items and appendices of the notice as unchanged.
Timeline and how to comment
The draft was published on 29 September 2026. The agency's comment guidelines set the period from 29 September to Thursday 29 October 2026, with postal submissions required to arrive within it. The e-Gov case page lists the closing time as 0:00 on 30 October. Comments must be in Japanese, give reasons, and go through e-Gov, email or post to the agency's Counsellor's Office. The agency says it will not reply to individual comments.
The agency plans to promulgate the change around the end of November 2026, with it taking effect on the same day.