Gifting Tax and Early Inheritance question

First time Reddit user, so apologies if this question is incomplete or been addressed multiple times.

Context: My wife and I are non-Japanese citizens and have never lived in Japan. My parents are Japanese citizens (both living in Japan) and would like to give us a substantial amount of money (they are both over 70 years old). We would like to use this to pay off our homeloan in our country.

If their donation to us is was categorised as a 'gift' – I understand that we would have to declare any gifting tax over the 1.1m yen limit (even though we are not Japanese citizens). As the donation could be quite large, we are exploring the best option we could utilise to legally and legitimately reduce the tax paid on this. Our country does not have tax on gifts received, at all.

Current thoughts:

1. Just receive regular 1.1m yen gifts each year (each)
2. Look into the early inheritance option (could we each be eligible for the max 25m yen tax-free payment? Does this option only include a Property or can it also include currency?)
3. Can my parents pay off our homeloan for us without this counting as a gift? (does this count as helping with living expenses)?
4. Use this money to pay off our homeloan, but (rather than making repayments to our bank; we repay our parents)?
5. Any other thoughts?

Obviously we are looking at international accountants, but thought we would do our own research before our first appointment.

Thank you for any help.