Declan Murphy wrote:

> If a long term gaigin lives on a boat, what happens with regards to
> Alien Registration?

Assuming Japan hasn't improved international conventions beyond 
recognition, then the address of the management office of the marina 
(sometimes plus a slip number; sometimes the slips have separate 
addresses) is the residential address of the person living on the boat. 
  Most marinas where friends live have both facilities for long term 
lessors and daily / weekly rental slips for yachts passing through. 
I've heard that a foreigner needs special permission to live in a 
Japanese marina but don't remember whether that is from Immigration or 
the police.

What I _DO_ recall from when I checked this out for someone about 15 
years ago (they wanted to live in Hayama or some then-new place in Seto 
Naikai down around Okayama) was that the main concerns were for where to 
send the bills for income tax, national health insurance, and retirement 
payments.  There were also some limitations on the number of times you 
could sail out and return or the number of days you had to be gone in 
order to stay on a tourist visa.  Plus, the rules for financial 
wherewithal were different for yacht people than for people arriving by 
passenger boat or plane.  At that time, they were also quite specific 
about prohibiting people from coming in for 90 days and working in any 
capacity, much unlike Hongkong, the Philippines, or the Thai coast.

I _think_ the English language source for this information is the Lloyds 
Register web site but be careful as there are pages for yacht people and 
pages for merchant marine people that look quite similar but have very 
different sets of information.  There is also a yacht magazine web site 
that lists the rules for all countries and specific ports where there 
are special hoops to jump through.

-- 
CL