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The bold part is the sentence in question, the rest is for context:

> 今日は、日本で長くお暮しの４人の外国の奥様においでいただきました。 **一番長い方は15年、短い方でも6年はいらっしゃるそうです。**
> その間のご苦労や嬉しかったことなどを伺いたいと思います。

The full text can be viewed
[here](https://www.docdroid.net/XIK9pCk/img-20171020-0001-new.pdf).

First, my attempt at translation:

> "The longest time person shall be here for 15 years, but the shortest time
> person shall be here for 6 years."

1) Is は in

> 一番長い方は

and

> 6年は

in a contrastive way here?

2) The positioning of でも is a bit unusual compared to what I've seen so far.  
It seems almost like a suffix to 方, although it surely isn't. However, does
this position have any consequence on its meaning? Does it become nuanced in a
different way?

3) I still feel a bit uncomfortable translating "一番長い方" into "the person who
has lived (here) the longest." I know there is very strong contextual support
here, but it still feels like I'm adding too much xD So I just wanted to know
if this is a common way to express this? Or do I have to be cautious in cases
where the context isn't as strong as it is here?
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grammar particle-は particle-でも
Uncertainties about this sentence: 「一番長い方は15年、短い方でも6年はいらっしゃるそうです。」
1) The は in 一番長い方は is meaning 'is' or 'has been'. But は in 短い方でも6年は is meaning
"at least she has been" or "in spite of the fact she is the shortest resident
in 4 persons here, she's been in here 6 years long". (To me as English learner
difference between "shall be" and "has been" is not clear. I used 'has been'
based on my instinct. Please fix it if it was inappropriate as English.)

**EDIT**

The usage of は in 短い方でも6年は is meaning 'at least'. Here is example of same
usage of は.

> 「駅まで行くのに１時間 **は** かかる」(It takes at least 1 hour to go to station.)
>
> 「給料として毎月25万円 **は** 欲しい」(I want at least 250000 yen per month as salary.)

2) The 方 here is meaning 'person'. And でも is meaning 'but' or 'in spite of the
fact'. 短い方でも6年はいらっしゃる is meaning 'The shortest resident in 4 persons here has
been in Japan for 6 years long in spite of the fact she is the shortest of 4'.

3) Your interpretation is correct.
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1) No. The first は before "15年" is not necessary contrastive and it can be
taken as a simple topic marker. The second は is a variant of the contrastive
usage of は and means _at least_ or _no less than_. See: [Does は mean 'at
least' in this sentence?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/29438/5010)

2) This でも is _even_ , not _but_. "even the person who has lived the shortest
..." See: ["Even a crab" - Japanese proverbs
(?)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/23957/5010) / [What does でもわかる mean
and what does あって+か do?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/25367/5010) /
[いくら＋pronoun＋でも
usage/meaning](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/42188/5010)

3) 彼は日本に来て(から)長い is a perfectly normal way to say "It's been long since he
came to Japan." (Notice the difference in subjects; `It` in the English
version is what's called a [dummy
subject](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/25668/5010)). So 日本に来て(から)長い方 is
also perfectly fine, and if there is enough context, even 長い方 is okay in the
same vein.
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As for 1) and 2), noruto's answer is perfect. I'll only give an explanation of
3).

The complete sentence for "一番長い方は" is, I think, "日本に来てからの生活が **一番長い方は** _the
person who has lived for the longest time since coming to Japan_ ".

In Japanese language, as you also know, what is already commonly understood
among people involved is generally omitted. Before the phrase with "一番長い方は",
the narrator has already introduced the four foreign wives who have lived long
in Japan. Therefore, the part with "日本に来てからの生活が _the life after coming to
Japan_ " of " **日本に来てからの生活が** 一番長い方は" is generally omitted.
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