One thing that I forgot... Most Japanese women are a complete bore on dates. No opinions, no discussions, nothing. "Be cute and shut up" seems to be their education.

And from what some of them told me, Japanese guys can be complete assh*les thinking that women are objects. Example : a guy who arrives 45 minutes late at the first date without warning and explains that he didn't see the time because he was playing video games (and the girl waited), and then during the date explains while laughing how his friends like to make girls drink a lot to rape them. The girl left at that time (and told me that when she were on a date together). Other girls told me that they didn't want to date Japanese guys anymore. And some women have no success with men because they look independant and talk back easily (that's what some guys told me). So "women are cute objects, men are the assh*les in power" seems to be usual mindset. No wonder dating is not popular...

Are they strict ? I've never looked into it. 

Pretty much this.  Societal pressures, responsibilities, and influences there are much more overwhelming than in the west.  Relationships falling by the wayside is just one symptom.  The growing number of people shutting themselves away from society in general is another.  

I don't really know that much either, but I've heard time and time again Japan is very hard to get into, more so than countries like, say, the United States. 

Yep, especially for the first visa. I'm looking for a job in Japan right now.

First, you need to have high education, like a master's degree or a lot of experience in your field (and I'm not even sure about that). 

But even if you do, you need a permanent job. And Japanese companies always say that they want more foreigners, but they discriminate heavily when they hire. Like "Japanese natives only", or "only people who lived in Japan for years" and usually "only people who are already working in Japan". You usually need to be fluent in Japanese, obviously (very hard). Even if you find one more open, they have a lot of very codified steps in their hiring process, like specific introduction texts to write (自己PR) and specific tests (all in Japanese) to take. It's hard even for Japanese candidates, and Japanese students have specific classes to learn how to do it. If you're a foreigner without help from someone Japanese, good luck. 

I do those things with my Japanese girlfriend (who is learning it in college), and it's hard for her too....

And Japanese politician only try to make easier the transformation in a permanent visa, nothing about the arrival. They just don't get it. 

Just like the politics for more kids... Instead of trying to lower the cost of having kids (a fortune) and fix the lack of help to parents, they try to do matchmaking in the companies. They're completely blind to the flaws of their system. 

I had a Japanese friend tell me to never, ever date a Japanese woman.  According to him, most have little interest in romance, they're just looking for someone to support them so they can stop working and for someone who will increase their status.

I'm not saying that's true but it does seem to be common sentiment.

Yep, it's true. A French guy married to a Japanese woman told me years ago that "Japanese woman are nice to have fun with, but never marry one". The Japanese education is completely messed up IMO. 

The girls I felt the best with were usually half-Japanese or Japanese women who lived abroad and don't have the Japanese mentality. My current girlfriend used to live in New Zealand, and wants to work abroad because she can't stand the Japanese mentality either. 

Porn and sex robots has done massive damage over there. It's a sad reality but it will only get worse and their population will only get smaller.

I went several times in adult stores here, but I have no idea what all of you mean by sex robots. (well, I know what sex robots are, but you don't find it here) 

Lots of onaholes, sure, but no sex robots. The most expensive stuffs I've seen are kind of automatic onaholes. That's all. And porn here is censored, so I guess they mostly use the same porn as us on internet. 

On the bright side probably fewer Japanese woman get raped than American woman on average.