A system and a method for dynamic or as-needed activation of Remote Method Invocation (RMI) layer remote objects in response to a client request. Object activation allows the system to clean up or delete currently unused remote objects, and then reactivate them when a client actually needs them. An object implementation can first be created in response to a client request. The client receives a remote reference (remote ref) and an activation identifier (activation id) identifying that particular implementation. The implementation can subsequently be cleaned up or deleted during garbage collection so as to save server resources, or alternatively the object can be reused if the system is set up to maintain a pool of objects. When the client requests the same object at a later point in time, the system activates an object based on the activation ID previously received from the server.