A. For change or extension, it is required to have a relevance of visa status and a correspondence in a narrow sense.

It is a very difficult name...

"a relevance of visa status" means that the activities of the applicant is suiting to those listed in the Immigration Act table. is.
And, "a correspondence in the narrow sense" is enough to admit that changes and extension are appropriate? is.

At the view point of a correspondence in the narrow sense, it means that a Minister of Justice has a very large discretion (the width which can be freely decided).

Particularly, in the Supreme Court decision on October 4, 1973 (named McLean case), "The Minister of Justice, in deciding whether to extend a period of stay, is aimed at managing immigration to foreigners and regulating the status of residence in Japan From the standpoint of preserving national interests such as maintenance of security and good-natured customs, securing health and sanitation institutions, stability of labor market, not only the applicant's reason for application, but also any foreign national who is staying We are going to tell of various circumstances such as line status, various political, economic, social and other circumstances, international situation, foreign relations, international reunion etc. "

However, it does not mean that the discretion of the Minister of Justice is unrestrictedly accepted.

Since the guidelines for change and extension is settled, we need to apply a visa referring to this guidelines.

Below are the guidelines written in various languages, not only in Japanese, please check them.

Ministry of Justice website: Change / extension guidelines