Tourist to spouse visa; ARC required?

I am an American citizen residing in Japan via a 90 day tourist visa. I will marry my Japanese girlfriend in a few days. Will I be required to have an Alien Registration Card (ARC) in order to become married and apply for a spouse visa through immigration? I did a lot of research to not avail.

http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-7114.html

According to this page, I do not need an ARC to get married, but it does not specify if one is needed in order to apply for a spouse visa. Can anyone help?

When applying for a change of status to Spouse of Japanese National, etc. while staying in Japan, normally just as a matter of fact you will be asked to show the ARC - consider people who have already been in Japan on a Student or a working visa, then getting married in Japan and applying for change of the status.

The Ministry of Justice website lists ARC as one of the documents that need to be shown when applying in person. I could only find the Japanese page, though.
http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/ZAIRYU_HENKO/zairyu_henko1.htm...

Considering that you have only been in Japan for a short period, they are not likely to enforce it, but especially if you are already living at the address that you will live after you get married, I think it might be good to apply for ARC already anyway.

If you're getting married in a few days, why are you worrying now about the ARC?

ARC is one of the most key documents you'll need to do just about anything in Japan - get insurance, get a job, get spouse visa, etc.

Getting a ARC shouldn't take more than 2 weeks (in my case exactly 2 weeks), but if you don't have one now, you'll be waiting at least that long to get married.

Here's a link related to this topic that might lead you to more info: http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42379