EDIT: Apologies for not stating in the post. I have been living in Japan under a work visa for four years. Wife is Japanese. Planning on switching over to a marriage visa, hence the query.
My wife and I (UK citizen) are going through the process of getting me a marriage visa and we have come across something that we don't really understand. On the Japanese Immigration Services Agency website it says in 「在留資格変更許可申請」section 4 says 「申請人の国籍国（外国）の機関から発行された結婚証明書 １通」(English: "Marriage certificate issued by an institution in the applicant's country of nationality (foreign country) 1 copy."
However, we got married in Japan and the British government does not need to be notified of marriages and does not give out legal British marriage certificates for marriages conducted abroad as seen here under the FAQs section, first question:
Q. I recently registered my marriage in Japan. I was asked by my ward office to get a marriage certificate from the Embassy. Do you offer such service?
A. No, we do not issue any documents relating to marriages once the marriage has been registered with the Japanese authorities. Your Japanese marriage document “Certificate of Acceptance of Notification of Marriage” (Kon-in Todoke Juri Shomeisho) and a translation of that document provided by a translation company should be sufficient for most purposes.
So in this case would the translation of the Japanese marriage certificate be enough? I'm thinking that I don't need it but my wife is insisting we do even though the British govt. website says it cannot provide what is supposedly needed on the Japanese webiste. Any advice would be much appreciated.
by Shinosei