Hmm, I wonder whether what we might be seeing here are the birth cries of some overall initiative on the Immigration Bureau's part to phase out entirely what remaining embassy income confirmation services still exist as a means of compliance with monthly income requirements for both retirement and marriage extensions. In an ideal world they should, of course, promulgate such a shift in policy through a revised Police Order, but, as I recall, they certainly didn't bust their gut in issuing any new Police Order in the immediate aftermath of the original decisions by the British and American embassies to discontinue their income confirmation services. As a result there was much uncertainty for a few months as to whether the alternative arrangements for monthly bank transfers, which had apparently been sanctioned by the top brass in the Immigration Bureau, would actually be honoured by individual offices.
