Originally Posted by
Ghoulish
There is no difference in a short term business trip or tourist status for US travelers to Japan and vice versa under an agreement with with United States.
The visa requirement is entirely part of temporary covid restrictions and if anything, business trips were given deference under those temporary requirements where tourism was not.
So in 30 hours, no visa would've been required in either case.
Again, discretion could've been easily exercised, but, you know, not all are pleased at the return of gaigin to Japan's pristine land.
Understood, but the trip did not happen before Oct 11.
So now it seems possible that the OP received the electronic approval but did not go forward with actually applying for the e-visa online, but that theory I believe would depend on when the trip was booked. IIRC, when Japan initially “opened”, only supervised tours were allowed from designated vendors who took care of the entire process including getting the visa issued.
So question for the OP - did you have an actual visa embossed in your passport or can you post a copy of what you presented to immigration with your personal details redacted? Maybe someone knowledgeable here can recognize what happened.