Japan: MIC Opens Comment on IP Network Virtualization Rules

On August 21, 2026, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC / 総務省) opened a public comment on the Information and Communications Council IP Network Facilities Committee draft report on technical conditions for telecommunications equipment under network virtualization and use of third-party infrastructure. Comments run from August 22, 2026 to September 25, 2026 (must arrive by the deadline). The text sits under Inquiry No. 2020 on IP-era equipment rules and is the near-term input for tighter self-confirmation filings and, later, possible amendments to the Rules for Telecommunications Facilities for Telecommunications Business.

Carriers already running virtualized 5G cores or public-cloud functions, vendors selling into those stacks, and cloud providers hosting telecom workloads should treat this as a binding-path consultation, not a background white paper. Continuous, per-jurisdiction monitoring is how Obsidian surfaces this class of MIC filing the day it posts.

What does the draft actually change for operators and vendors?

The draft does not rewrite the Radio Act Giteki mark path. It targets how business telecommunications equipment is documented and made resilient when functions run on virtualization platforms or on third-party facilities, including public cloud. MIC's press release and the summary frame three linked problems: uneven self-confirmation (自己確認届出) descriptions of virtualized assets, technical standards still oriented to physical plant while CU/DU and core functions concentrate in fewer sites, and ambiguous accountability when another party's equipment or cloud service delivers regulated functions.

Concrete near-term direction in the draft includes revising the self-confirmation filing manual so operators must state whether virtualization is used, name and map the virtualized functions, describe damage/failure countermeasures specific to those functions, and explain availability from both hardware and software angles (for example, keeping virtual machines pre-running on standby hardware). Where base-station functions are aggregated so an outage would affect an area larger than a municipality, the draft expects operators to document multi-layer redundancy. For cloud and multi-site designs, filings should describe regions, availability zones, and failover, including hybrid own-equipment backups. System-wide measures using multiple regions or AZs are treated as relevant evidence of redundancy relative to the Rules for Telecommunications Facilities for Telecommunications Business, not as a free pass based on cloud SLAs alone.

Who must act before September 25, 2026, and who is next in line?

Primary respondents are Japanese fixed and mobile carriers (including NTT group operators, KDDI, SoftBank, Rakuten Mobile, and IIJ) that already use or plan virtualization or third-party facilities for regulated network functions. Network equipment vendors selling into Japan (NEC, Fujitsu, Nokia, Ericsson and peers) and public-cloud / domestic cloud providers that host telecom workloads are next: the draft's confidentiality chapter treats service-style delivery of equipment functions as creating situations where a third party may access communications information, so contract and architecture language will matter once the report hardens.

MVNOs and virtual operators that rely on host-network infrastructure should map which host-side functions fall under the consultation so they can pressure their wholesale partners to file aligned comments. Foreign vendors without a Japanese filing practice still need product and certification roadmaps ready for the post-report ordinance and manual changes that typically follow a finalized Information and Communications Council report.

What should compliance teams file or prepare by the deadline?

Submission rules are in Annex 3. Use the window to attach evidence, not slogans: current self-confirmation excerpts showing how virtualization and third-party assets are described today; gap lists against the draft's required fields; and proposed manual wording that preserves multi-region / multi-AZ designs without pretending an SLA equals statutory redundancy. Flag where third-party disclosure is too thin for self-confirmation or for MIC accident reporting, and where communications-secrecy controls need contractual bite when cloud operators hold management rights over functions that process traffic.

Take advantage of this real-time watch

Verify whether your Japan footprint uses virtualized cores, aggregated CU/DU, housing, or public cloud for regulated functions; close gaps in self-confirmation documentation against the draft fields; brief network, cloud, and legal teams before September 25, 2026; and watch the finalized report for the manual rewrite and any later Rules amendments. Obsidian keeps the MIC comment-to-ordinance chain visible so the next filing is not a surprise.