I read that Long-Term Resident by Descent is a fairly recent visa category. My wife is from Hawaii, and her grandfather emigrated there from Yamaguchi-ken in 1907. After much research, we've determined that she meets the criteria for a Certificate of Eligibility, and I'd be eligible for a Spousal Visa. We’ve only found one instance of people who have used this visa to move to Japan: a blog by a young Hawaiian couple where the wife’s grandmother was from Japan, and the husband got the Spousal Visa. Their last entry was in 2020, when they were applying for their third one-year renewal. They both were working at some sort of jobs. They no longer respond to emails, so I don’t know what became of them.
My wife is 75 and retired. I’m 66 and can retire at any time (I love my job). We’re both in good health. While we aren’t wealthy, we have more than enough income and savings to meet Japan’s minimum financial requirements. We know that meeting the COE requirements doesn’t necessarily mean we’d be granted a visa, though—and from what I’ve read on other threads, the length of stay granted for other long-term visas and their renewals seems arbitrary. Since Japan doesn’t have a Retirement Visa, it’s nearly impossible to find examples of people in our age range who successfully moved to Japan. We're aware of Japan's aging population and the burden it's placing on the retirement system. Given the time, effort, and expense of getting everything needed for my wife’s COE, I'm trying to get a sense of whether we’d likely be denied visas because of our ages, even if we meet the COE requirements.
by Lapaki58