Kosen Alumni Lobbying Led to Ministry of Education Degree Consideration, Webinar Reveals
The webinar provides the first detailed account of how a single graduate's visa problem escalated into a formal government review of KOSEN degree policy.
Reporting from 1 sources: ASCII.jp.
A June 15 webinar hosted by Shireru detailed how KOSEN alumni advocacy over two and a half years led the Ministry of Education to consider conferring degrees to graduates. The effort began when a graduate living abroad discovered she had no degree certificate, only an associate degree title. Alumni collected cases and conducted surveys, building a case that moved the government.
Shireru, a company based in Yokohama, held an online webinar on June 15, 2026, recounting the two-and-a-half-year campaign by KOSEN alumni that led the Ministry of Education to consider granting degrees to graduates. The trigger was a KOSEN alumna living abroad who, when asked by a local government office for her degree, realized she only held an associate degree title, not a degree. She raised the issue at a KOSEN graduate gathering, and an article by Shireru's Mikan Yamada became the first public step.
Alumni Shigemaru Nishiyama and Takaaki Takashima then formed a chat group and began daily advocacy. They collected cases from other graduates who faced barriers to study abroad, permanent residency, and graduate school because their KOSEN coursework was not recognized as a degree. Nishiyama contacted a Nara KOSEN alumnus working in the US, saying he did not want juniors to suffer the same fate. The group also conducted a survey among Human Network KOSEN members, gathering about 55 responses to strengthen their case.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.