Is COE Required for Long Stay Visa?

Hello, I am interested in applying for the Designated activities (Long Stay for sightseeing and recreation) visa (link: https://www.mofa.go.jp/ca/fna/page22e_000738.html).

I meet the requirements. However, I'm having trouble determining whether a CoE is necessary for this type of visa and haven't been able to find any information online.

In the requirements, under requirement (3) for Certificate of Eligibility, it states: "if you submit the Certificate of Eligibility, you do not need to submit (4) to (6) below". Given this statement, it seems as if documents (4) through (6) can be submitted instead of a Certificate of Eligibility.

However, this visa's page does not specify whether the COE is truly required or not, whereas every other visa page does explicitly specify this one way or another.

For example:
- General visa: Cultural activities (https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/long/visa5.html) states explicitly: "A visa application for this type of visa could be made without COE. However, the applicant will be required to submit a large amount of verification documents and it could take a long time (several months) to process."
- Highly Skilled Professional Visa (https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/long/visa16.html) states explicitly: "Without the Certificate of Eligibility, the visa for highly skilled professionals cannot be applied."

Given that this visa type does not specify - it is ambiguous. Based on the statement about requirements (4) to (6), it seems that the COE is optional if the applicant can instead produce (4) to (6), but is it unclear. Does anyone have first-hand experience with applying for this visa? Thank you very much.

The certificate of the eligibility is necessary.

You can prepare documents that prove you can satisfy the requirement (30 million yen) etc. and submit them to the immigration bureau in Japan.

And you will receive certificate of the eligibility in your home country.

Then you submit it to the general consulate of Japan in your home country and receive visa.

And you can come to Japan and receive resident card.

Thanks for the answer. Is there a way to apply for the COE from home country, or is this something that requires a proxy or me representing myself in immigration physically in Japan?

Hi Beeb

I might be wrong but on your link you posted it seems to suggest that if you don't submit a coe you'd need to submit documents 4-6 in the list.

That suggests to me that it's not required but would remove the need for some extra documents.

It seems to make sense as people going to japan for extended sight seeing don't usually know anyone in japan,I doubt you'd need someone to act as your guarantor and apply for your coe, as long as you can show you can afford it and have those extra docs.

Best bet it to ask the japanese embassy in your country though as they'd be the ones dealing with your application. If a coe is difficult for you to obtain as lack of contacts in japan, just ask them what you'd need in it's place.