[Purpose] The purposes of the present study were to understand and to analyze the current situation, including lifestyle and environmental factors, of type 2 diabetes patients receiving treatment, in order to identify factors facilitating the continuation of exercise therapy and thereby determine the optimal focus of care instructions. [Methods] The subjects were patients with type 2 diabetes admitted to Hachinohe City Hospital for instructional purposes, for whom individual exercise therapies were prescribed. All the subjects were discharged from the hospital 3 years or more before participating in the study. The subjects were asked via telephone interview whether they were still exercising after discharge from hospital. Based on the results of the telephone survey, a univariate analysis (bivariate logistic regression analysis of parameters affecting the continuation or discontinuation of exercise) was performed to determine the significance of each parameter. [Results] The following factors were identified as facilitating the continuation of exercise therapy: 1) goal setting, 2) absence of impeding factors, 3) operant conditioning, 4) self-monitoring, 5) presence of someone providing instruction on how to exercise, 6) confidence in exercising even when busy doing household duties or working, 7) suffering no disadvantage from exercising, 8) use of exercise facilities and 9) age (advanced age was associated with a higher continuation rate). [Conclusion] To our knowledge, no previous study has focused on which instruction method is optimal based on follow-up survey results. Targeted care instruction can be provided by statistically analyzing differences between patients who continue exercising and those who do not and incorporating the results of the analysis into exercise instruction.