Thank you for that bit of info. I was not aware of that. Will definetly apply for that.

I also have first hand experience with the above (Canadian passport/consecutive tourist visa), the max is 180 days a calendar year (for Canadian passport holders). If you come in and out but do not stay for the full 90 days each time (let us say 3 weeks followed by 1 month away) you could easily without question come in and out. This would also show that you are not working here, and if questioned you state that you are just here to support your Japanese National wife in taking care of her parents(which is truth). And as you are resident of Canada they can not claim otherwise. I assume that having residency(not citizenship) in 2 places might be problematic and that you would have to declare residency in one place (we both know it is about the taxes)! Canadian taxes BTW are lower when you include the all the separate forms of taxation in Japan(income,health,local taxes, etc.).

As others have pointed out it might be easier to have a spousal landing permit with a multiple entry as it is very much within your reach, and then get your citizenship once you get the lay of the land!

Once you get your re-entry permit, you can also utilize the re-entry permit lanes at the airport.

While at the immigration office, you could probably go ahead and sign up to use the automatic re-entry gates at the airport as well.

This hold true for all landing permit holders, even those with permanent residence (still need a re-entry permit). And you will need a multiple-entry (re-entry) visa for 6,000 JPY good for the length of your underlying landing permit ! Of course this will not be the case when you gain citizenship!

Really....I know that is the case in Canada but I am not so sure that it is the case in Japan.

We had friends who were stuck. She is Canadian and he was Japanese. Neither earned enough income to survive on their own. They first tried to live in Canada but he couldn't work and then they tried moving to Japan and she couldn't work. She immediately applied for the spousal visa but it still took them almost a year before she can work in Japan.

Maybe there was a better method but they didn't know of one.

For us, this is not an immediate problem. We are just preparing for the eventuality.

Where did you get this idea? Let me explain how the docs work:

A visa is a passport page-sized sticker and is what you need when you enter Japan for the first time (unless you qualify for a visa waiver). You get it outside Japan at a Japanese embassy. The duration of the visa tells you when you can ENTER Japan, not how long you have to stay.

When you enter, the immigration officer gives you a landing permit and a status of residence on a postage stamp-like sticker in your passport. The length of the landing permit tells you how long you can stay.

Once you are in Japan with a landing permit, the visa is dead; its sole purpose in life is to get you into the country. If you want to stay for longer, you have to apply to immigration to extend the landing permit. If you want to change your job category, you have to change your status of residence.

Once you leave Japan, the landing permit is cancelled automatically UNLESS you have a re-entry permit, another postage stamp-like sticker in your passport.

AFAIK the only "multiple entry visas" in Japan are for professionals from countries like China and Russia who don't qualify for a visa waiver but still want to make regular trips to Japan. The holder can come or go multiple times over a period of one or five years, but is still a "temporary visitor" and can't work or go to school in Japan.

I really wish people would stop calling things "visas" when they aren't visas (and it's not just you, Q, it's practically everyone). It would make these explanations so much clearer...

Incidentally a multiple re-entry permit costs 6,000 yen and is valid for the duration of your landing permit (or 3 years if you're a permanent resident). I understand that the government is supposed to do away with re-entry permits sometime in the next few years, along with a bunch of other improvements to the immigration procedures, but haven't seen a specific timetable for it.

Yes. This conversation might be easier if we could all agree on standard terminology and definitions. On balance, though, I'm happy that we don't put lawyers in charge of the lexicon for everyday conversation. Have you ever read the stuff they write?

My bad on my abuse of the aforementioned terminology! OP good luck in sorting this all out, and beware of the Canadian government and their ever changing policies on residency/citizenship etc.

Yeah true enough.

As being Canadian, that can never be revoked but the residency issue is another. I WANT to be a non resident but they won't let me. If they remove my residency I would be a happy man.

As for my wife who is a landed immigrant, our Canadian immigration lawyer is clear, as long as we are married, she can renew her status as long as we can prove we are together abroad.

According to the link below:
http://educationjapan.org/visas/spousal.html

"The application for this visa can be carried out in Japan or abroad although application would generally be from within Japan. It is possible to change to this visa from other visa types (on completion of the standard application process). The permanent resident should generally be in Japan. A guarantor in Japan is also necessary (usually this is the permanent resident). The visa is for a maximum of 3 years and there are no restrictions on activities (i.e. you can legally work on this visa)".

And joe I can not change the misuse of quoted lexicon.....

So how long is this standard application processes?

My friend mentioned that including the application process, interview process, processing time it took almost a year.

During this time, you cannot work. After you receive the permit, there are no restrictions on activities.

I have no idea on how long the spousal landing permit would take. Would it not be best to contact the closest Japanese Consulate/Embassy to get the ball rolling?

The Intracompany Transferee visa which I received when I moved to Japan in 2008 was the multiple entry variety. I remember that being quite convenient because I had to fly out to Hong Kong for a business trip before I had even completed the alien registration formalities.

I know a few people who have gotten married in Japan and changed to a spousal visa. It didn't take anywhere near a year (I know one person who took 2 months and that seems to be the longest).