I'm working on the COE for a spousal visa. I lived in Japan previously with my partner for 5 years working, and 1 year on a spouse residence permit. He got sent on a work assignment in Europe and we've been living here for quite a while, but now it's time to go back, so I need to do the whole COE process from scratch.
I'm a little conflicted on what to put under 過去の出入国歴, technically speaking I've entered Japan 7 times in total in my life, but 5 of those entries were short trips back home during my initial residence in Japan. The other 2 times were short trips to visit Japan from Europe.
I feel like I should put 3回 instead of 7, the reasoning being "The short trips home during that residence period were temporary departures while maintaining residency, not separate 'periods of coming to Japan'".
On the questionnaire they want a list of these periods and the purpose of stay. I wrote out my 5 year residency period with the reason 日本在住（期間中一時出国あり), then listed the other 2 holiday trips.
Just wanted to get some other thoughts on this from the community. Thanks in advance.
by Infamous-Rule-3492