Who is who on these forms

Almost every ambiguity in this paperwork comes from one word: applicant.

On every form in this bundle, the applicant (申請人) is the foreign spouse — the person who needs the status of residence. It is never the Japanese spouse, even on the Certificate of Eligibility route where the Japanese spouse is the one standing at the counter doing the filing. Filing on someone's behalf does not make you the applicant; it makes you their representative.

So when a form asks for a passport, a photograph, a nationality or a date of birth without qualification, it means the foreign spouse's. Where a form wants something from the Japanese side it says so explicitly — 日本人配偶者, 身元保証人 (guarantor), or 扶養者 (supporter).

The three roles worth keeping straight:

Applicant (申請人) — the foreign spouse. Their passport, their photograph, their nationality, their address history.

Guarantor (身元保証人) — almost always the Japanese spouse. Undertakes living costs, the fare home, and compliance with the law. Signs by hand.

Supporter (扶養者) — whoever actually pays the household's costs. Usually the same person as the guarantor, which is why the two are easily confused, but they are separate boxes and a form may want them filled differently.

One document breaks the pattern, and it catches people out: the family register (戸籍謄本) and the certificate of residence (住民票) are Japanese civil records. They belong to the Japanese spouse. A foreign national has no family register of their own.