There are quite a few things about the Japanese regulatory state which are like this, so much so that half of the reason to have a lawyer/accountant/行政書士(+) is so that you can have someone with a good guess as to which rules are rules and which rules are more of suggestions (and, relatedly, someone to argue the point with the relevant office when they notice your paperwork is out of compliance with ministerial regulation 437 b) xvii).
I've had to sit through some very amusing telephone calls to Tokyo while the local Social Security Office was apprised that, nope, Japan really does occasionally sign treaties on the subject of taxes and "We can't help you with that" is in fact not acceptable procedure when asked for the relevant documentation to secure one's status under the treaty. (I subsequently learned that there are roughly 400 natural people who apply for that treaty's benefits in the entire world and 399 of them use one of a handful of legal firms in downtown Tokyo.)
(+) for our American friends: a licensed form-filler-inner who are combination notaries, paralegals, and gophers who you can grant Power of Attorney to. For example, if you have a fairly straightforward visa situation, you could give one of them $2,000 and they'd prepare the relevant documents for you. (And, should the Ministry of Justice not agree that your situation is straightforward, everyone will politely pretend that "Really, are you sure about that?" does not mean "Look, he was good for $2,000, how bad could he possibly be? We've been buddies since high school, do me a favor here.")
I've had to sit through some very amusing telephone calls to Tokyo while the local Social Security Office was apprised that, nope, Japan really does occasionally sign treaties on the subject of taxes and "We can't help you with that" is in fact not acceptable procedure when asked for the relevant documentation to secure one's status under the treaty. (I subsequently learned that there are roughly 400 natural people who apply for that treaty's benefits in the entire world and 399 of them use one of a handful of legal firms in downtown Tokyo.)
(+) for our American friends: a licensed form-filler-inner who are combination notaries, paralegals, and gophers who you can grant Power of Attorney to. For example, if you have a fairly straightforward visa situation, you could give one of them $2,000 and they'd prepare the relevant documents for you. (And, should the Ministry of Justice not agree that your situation is straightforward, everyone will politely pretend that "Really, are you sure about that?" does not mean "Look, he was good for $2,000, how bad could he possibly be? We've been buddies since high school, do me a favor here.")