@xuq01 do you know if your mother had to provide evidence of a shanghai ID or a certain income etc.?

On the site for the Japanese embassy in the UK it states that the visas are valid for 90 days (uk.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/index_000070.html) and UK citizens don't actually need a visa at all. We also talked to the people in the embassy and they confirmed this. When we look on Chinese sites however it states 15 days only (vacations.ctrip.com/visa/p49336s2.html) - there are visas for 30 or 90 days but they have certain requirements e.g. must earn over 50,000 yuan/year which she obviously doesn't meet since she lives and works in the UK.