The Immigration Services Agency has opened a public comment procedure on a draft notice that would delete item 15 of the designated-activities notice, the entry that lets a foreign national come to Japan as a university student and give paid lectures on international cultural exchange at Japanese schools. Comments close on 29 October 2026, and the agency expects to promulgate the amendment around the end of November 2026, with effect from the day it is promulgated.
The case number on e-Gov is 315000146, posted on 29 September 2026. It is the only agency comment procedure currently open.
What item 15 allowed
Designated Activities is not a single status. It sits on a 1990 Ministry of Justice notice listing numbered activities the Minister of Justice has designated in advance, and a residence card reading 特定活動 means the holder was permitted one of those items, named on the 指定書 attached to their passport.
Item 15, added in 2005, covered a narrow case. A foreign national enrolled as a university student could join an international cultural exchange programme run by a qualifying local government, under a contract with a Japanese organisation that paid them, and lecture on international cultural exchange at elementary, junior high, high, secondary, special-needs, vocational and miscellaneous schools. The activity was confined to university vacation periods and capped at three months.
A separate appendix, 別表第四, set what the receiving side had to provide: support with housing and daily living, a system for managing the person's entry and residence, and settled terms covering where the lectures would be given, over what period, and for what pay. The draft deletes that appendix along with the item.
Why the agency is removing it
The agency's outline gives one reason, and it is a blunt one: nobody uses the route. It records zero new entrants in the statistics from 2018 onward and zero foreign residents under the category from 2020 onward, and calls the usage record 極めて限定的, extremely limited. Twenty-one years after the item was written in, there is no one on it.
If you hold a Designated Activities residence card
Nothing on your card changes, and there is nothing to file. Each designated-activities permission is tied to one numbered item, and only item 15 is being struck.
The items that mid-to-long-term residents actually hold are untouched: item 46, for graduates of Japanese universities working in roles that require Japanese-language communication, along with specified research activities, specified information processing activities, the J-Find route, the digital nomad category, and the permissions granted to spouses, parents and domestic staff of highly skilled professionals. If the 指定書 in your passport names any item other than 15, this amendment does not reach you.
If you are planning an exchange programme
Local governments and schools are the parties with a practical reason to read the draft. The notice takes effect on the day it is promulgated and the published outline sets out no transitional arrangement, so an organisation that had item 15 in mind should plan on the basis that the route is closed from late November 2026.
The agency keeps a separate designated-activities route covering internships, summer jobs and international cultural exchange, with its own requirements, and that is where a short school programme would now be built. The wider set of categories is laid out in the visa category overview.
How to comment, and by when
Three channels are open. The e-Gov form accepts submissions until 30 October 2026 at 00:00, which in practice means the end of 29 October. Email and post must arrive by 29 October 2026. The agency's submission guidance carries the email address and asks for the subject line パブリックコメント（特定活動第１５号）, with the comment as plain text in the body; attachments and links are rejected. Post goes to the Councillors' Office of the Immigration Services Agency at 〒100-8973, Kasumigaseki 1-1-1, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, with the same wording on the envelope in red.
Comments must be in Japanese and must state reasons. An individual gives a name, address and contact details; an organisation gives its name and office location. Telephoned comments are not accepted.
What to watch after 29 October
The agency publishes the outcome of a comment procedure on e-Gov together with the final notice, so case 315000146 is the page that will show whether the deletion goes through unchanged. Promulgation is pencilled in for around the end of November 2026.
If your residence card reads 特定活動, look at the item number on the 指定書 in your passport before assuming any of this touches you. For almost everyone, it does not.
Sources: e-Gov public comment, case 315000146, Outline of the amendment (ISA), Draft notice (ISA), Submission guidance (ISA), Ministry of Justice — designated activities notice, Immigration Services Agency — Designated Activities