[sarasi]

Whether the person gets 1 or 3 years is at the discretion of the Immigration official. I got 3 years for my first spouse visa, but that was no doubt because I had already lived in Japan for 10 years on working visas.

I don't think it's just a matter of having a guarantor in Japan as you still need to show you are eligible for the visa, and I wonder whether it would be possible to prove that in this case. All the other paperwork has to be in order as well, including the juuminhyou, and to get a juuminhyou I believe you have to be registered as living in a certain city/ward, and therefore be paying into national health insurance etc.

Assuming that the visa was granted, I also wonder what the reaction of Immigration officials would be if it became obvious through the person's entry and exit patterns that they were not in fact living in Japan (i.e. more time outside Japan than in it).

Anyway, let us know how the person gets on, as it would be interesting to know.