Moving to Japan with Japanese Spouse - Advice

Hello,
My husband and I are planning to make the move to Japan in a few months. He's a Japanese citizen, just been living abroad in Canada for the past few years, while I'm an America, though also living in Canada the years since we've been married.
I would just like to ask, those of you with similar experiences, for any tips or advice (or "gotchas") on making this immigration as smooth as possible?
We've begun doing a bit of research, but I'd also be interested to hear first-hand experiences, if there was anything you found, perhaps unexpectedly, when moving to Japan with or as a foreign spouse, particularly when it comes to legal or governmental sorts of things.
I am already on the family koseki, and I'm also fully daily-life-proficient in Japanese (as is my husband, naturally). No kids just yet. I also do have a bachelor's degree in chemistry from an American university.
Not sure at this time whether we'll ever eventually have me switch to Japanese citizenship or just stay PR, and of course that will also depend on how our long-term future plans pan out, but I'd appreciate advice on that subject as well.
Thanks very much in advance for any help!

Hi there - I can't give specific info, but you might want to look for groups such as: AFWJ :: Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese and Being A Broad

There is no obligation for you to change your American citizenship to Japanese. If you want to stay longer than 90 days as an American tourist, however, you will need to get a spousal visa. You cannot get PR right away, so the visa status comes first, perhaps for 3-5 years, then PR.

You can apply for the visa before you leave for Japan or after you arrive. That's pretty much it for the immigration side of things. Whatever paperwork you need is straightforward, barring any difficulties or costs in translating some.

If you at some point decide to take Japanese citizenship, you will have to change your name to a Japanese one, complete with kanji. You will no longer be able to return to your home country on the American passport, and you will be considered a tourist in your original homeland. No voting, no taxes, no military service. To get a glimpse of what it takes (every situation differs) on the process of changing citizenship, look at this site created by a naturalized citizen:
www.debito.org: Naturalization Requirements for the US and Japan
Or just contact Japanese immigration.

Learn what it's like to have kids with a Japanese spouse, at least as far as Japan and dual nationality is concerned. Naming your child can also be a tricky thing, too. Not sure, but maybe this site can be helpful: Japan With Kids - The interactive online community for English speaking parents in Japan!

Thanks for all the resources so far, everyone!

We are already starting to get everything together for the spousal visa, planning to get that all done before we leave.

Do you know what specific advantages there would be, if any, to getting citizenship as opposed to just PR? Or disadvantages?

Advantage of PR over spousal visa is a better chance of getting bank loans. I know people who got them even with spousal visas, so it's case by case.

If something horrible happens (divorce, death), you are better protected with PR than spousal visa because you don't have to scramble to get a new status of residence.

Citizenship beats PR only (IMO) if you want to vote. That naturalized citizen on the first link I gave you has run into problems with people calling him or his kids foreigners despite his naturalization, or treating him as such just because of his non-Asian face. (His attitude doesn't help, but that's not the point.)

I already told you that if you naturalize, you can't return to your home country without special permission, and you can't vote there.

Those are all the major points that I can think of for now.

Thank you, very helpful.