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Hi Sushiman. I also now live in Japan -- a resident the past two years - and lived here 3 years when I was U.S. Navy four decades ago. Wife is a U.S. citizen and former Japanese national. We lived in America together for 43 years. Figured this would be a great place to retire -- and it is!

So many misconceptions on this thread. A lot of hearsay and speculation as opposed to facts. Here's my perspective:

Japan is a very peaceful, law abiding, and civil society. Crime is under control: Japan has only 5% of the (per capita) people in jail as America.
And Japanese LOVE Americans. One of the reasons is our military is defending Japan. And plenty of Japanese have lived in the United States during college years or worked for Japanese companies operating factories and other businesses in America.
When Americans retire to a foreign country where to they live? England, Australia, New Zealand. No, those countries are not as popular as you might believe. The number 1 country with the most American retirees is Canada. No surprise there. But not far behind is Japan at number two. Over 100,000 Americans are retired in Japan and receiving Social Security here. Social Security publishes figures on the number of payments to every country in the world.
There's been some talk here about Japan being a socialist country. Not so. Business competition within Japan is fierce. It's a free country. And in terms of social security, government retirement benefits are much lower here in Japan than they are for U.S. citizens.
And contrary to one comment, yes you can absolutely rent a place to live and pay month-to-month. You can have the U.S. government send your Social Security paycheck DIRECTLY to a Japanese bank at the going rate -- and without having to use a middleman bank take a foreign exchange commission.
Yes, the Japaneses are cautious when it comes to doing business with foreigners. We were not allowed to have a regular bank account in the country until we lived in Japan for six months. We could still pay most of our bills through the Japanese postal service (which offers limited banking services) or pay utility bills by paying cash at a convenience store.
Don't let people fool you. Japan is a GREAT and beautiful country. And it absolutely has its strict immigration policy under control.