The Cabinet Secretariat working group designing Japan's planned Japanese-language and daily-life learning programme heard from two resident-side submitters at its third meeting on 20 October 2026, and both set conditions on the proposal to read course attendance into residence decisions. Neither asked for foreign residents to be left out; both asked that the screening it would feed be made transparent first, and that the learning be available before it counts against anyone.
What the secretariat has put on the table
The discussion paper circulated for the 20 October meeting sets out, in its discussion-items column, where the programme would touch residence procedure. Course A, covering pre-entry and the period just after arrival, would be checked at the first application to extend a period of stay. Course B, aimed at permanent residence and naturalisation, would be checked at a permanent residence application and where a stay of 10 years or more is involved, with proof of Japanese at B1 or above sought at permanent residence. A separate item raises checking it at naturalisation screening.
These are discussion items. No application filed under current rules is affected by any of them.
What the resident-side submissions said
The first came from NPO法人国際活動市民中心 (CINGA), submitted by coordinator Midori Arai. Its opinion column responds to the secretariat's items rather than restating them, and the response is conditional rather than opposed.
On the screening link, CINGA writes: 「このプログラムの受講が「動機付け」となるためには、在留資格審査の透明化が必須」. For enrolment to work as motivation, transparency in residence-status screening is essential. It argues that hours and tests matter but that the communication ability needed to live independently matters more, so judgement should be holistic, and that the right to learn should be guaranteed for people who will live as community residents. It adds that better pay and conditions for Japanese-language teachers is a prerequisite.
The submitter who went through the system herself
The second paper is from Rosa Mercedes Ochante Murai, associate professor at Momoyama Gakuin University, presenting the views of those directly affected. Where attendance or comprehension is to be reflected in residence screening, she argues, the purpose and the method must be examined carefully, and the design must reconcile requiring attendance with everyone being able to learn fairly.
Her paper sets out her own route: arrival in December 1996, junior high school finished in 1997 with almost no Japanese, a part-time senior high school, then the Japanese Language Proficiency Test at level 3 and level 2. It puts her time in Japan at 29 years, and contrasts her path with a younger sibling's to argue that age at arrival changes the outcome within one family. She proposes a free trial period, fee reductions keyed to income if charges are introduced, and residents treated as partners in the design.
Who this concerns
This is a mid-to-long-term resident matter. Every checkpoint named in the 20 October papers, from extension of a period of stay through permanent residence and naturalisation, presupposes a residence card. Nothing in the programme or in these submissions reaches someone arriving on short-stay permission as a visitor.
What is already fixed, and what is not
Separately, the revised permanent residence permission guidelines took effect on 1 October 2026. They make Japanese ability at B1 or above on the Reference Framework for Japanese Language Education a consideration factor in the national-interest judgement, not a pass-or-fail test. The Immigration Services Agency states that this applies to applications filed on or after 1 April 2027. The guidelines carry exemptions, among them highly skilled professionals and their family members, people who completed six or more years of primary or secondary education in Japan, and Japan-born children of permanent residents where a parent holds B1-level ability.
The programme itself is less settled. The ministerial council's roadmap puts the basic policy on accepting foreign nationals in March 2027 and the trial start at April 2028 or later. No fee, no hours requirement and no exemption list has been published for it.
What to do about it
If you are working towards permanent residence, the date that binds you is 1 April 2027, and the question is whether you fall within a guideline exemption or need to produce B1 evidence. The six-years-of-schooling exemption in particular catches people who do not think of themselves as covered. Our reference pages on permanent residency at /visa-types/permanent-residency and on language rules at /eligibility-and-requirements/japanese-language-requirements show where that sits in the wider test.
If your next step is a first extension of your period of stay, nothing from this programme attaches to it; the procedure at /application-process/extending-renewing-status-of-residence is unchanged.
No public comment procedure is open on the programme, so these hearings are where the record is being built. A fourth meeting has not been listed, and the basic policy it feeds is due in March 2027. Watch the working group's index page on the Cabinet Secretariat site, where a new meeting appears before the index carries a date.
Sources: Cabinet Secretariat — programme working group, 3rd meeting, CINGA submission, Ochante Murai submission, ISA — revised permanent residence guidelines, Cabinet Secretariat — review roadmap