You got it!
Cool beans.
Yes and no. A 90-day tourist visa is free for any American with a passport. However, you cannot legally look for employment, and more importantly, no company can legally hire you, or promise to hire you.
Oh OK, that's pretty much what I figured, but they really can't promise to hire you? interesting...
It's a huge industry. Demand for skilled people:high. Demand for skilled foreigners: low.
Why do you say that? Does being a foreigner honestly have anything to do with how skilled you are at your craft? Or even more importantly, how well you can do your job? I've worked in France, Mexico, and Spain and I don't speak any of their languages. I don't mean to argue with you, I just don't understand what you're getting at... unless Japan is completely different from the rest of the world or something.
Unless you are fluent in Japanese, don't expect to find any work outside of the English teaching world.
Have you been to Arizona, or the West Coast? There are plenty of Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, who don't speak ANY English whatsoever, and who are doing very well financially. I've even worked with a few back when I worked at CJS Studios.
Besides, I'm learning Japanese right now. I don't expect to be quote/unquote "fluent" in Japanese when the time comes, but there always a need for bilingual employees. ESPECIALLY in the movie business where you get people from all around the world working in one place. So, who knows... I might even have to learn a third language if it comes to it.
Good question. There are several threads dedicated to this question.
Cool. I'll search on my own, but if you could post up some links to the more important threads, that'd help a lot.
Citizenship? (Not legal permanent resident?) If you want to be a citizen of Japan get really good at soccer, play in Japan for many years while appearing regularly on Japanese variety shows, and then apply.
I didn't know there was an alternative to Japanese Citizenship... interesting... Legal Permanent Resident basically means i'm allowed to live, travel, and work within Japan, but am still opt for deportation if I break any laws, correct?
If you are familiar with your industry, as i am sure you are, getting "in" is hard and takes a lot of luck. You need to start finding connections, or else I think this dream maybe very hard to fulfill.
Just like poker, yes, luck is a factor.. but there is also an incredible amount of skill involved as well. Case in point: I was offered a job down in Rome last summer, which I eventually had to turn down, but I've never even been to Rome before... and I don't speak Italian. They obviously didn't care whether or not I was able to communicate in their native tongue, or at least not as much as they did about how good I did my job.
Again, I'm not arguing with you, honestly. I'm just trying to understand the situation in front of me.
You'll find out, if you haven't already, once I have a goal in mind I pretty much set out to accomplish whatever it is. So, if I come off as being prickly I do apologize. 
And thanks again for taking the time to help me out...
-Josh B.