You can now get permanent residency in one year if you have 80 points on the immigration point table.
Just by earning a typical "barely above entry level FAANG salary", you already got 50 out of 80 points necessary. If you got a bachelor's degree and 5 years of experience, that's another 20 points. The rest can be satisfied by age (5 points for under 40, 10 points for under 35), passing N1 level language exam (15 points), and the list goes on with tons of other ways to get those remaining points.
Seems pretty reasonable and deterministic, no H1B lottery gambling or waiting in queues and hoping you aren't getting kicked out in the next few years when your OPT extension from F1 expires. Mind you, I am not trying to roast US with this, because US system isn't particularly bad at all if you look at how difficult it is for someone outside of EU to immigrate to one of those countries. And of course I am not saying that Japan did something amazing that makes immigration universally accessible. None of the developed countries have that. But out of all of them, Japan seems to have a pretty reasonable one for professionals, and that's a recent development too.
0. https://www.lb.emb-japan.go.jp/Points-Based-Immigration-Trea...
The lack of skilled immigration to Japan has nothing to do with strict immigration law.
The fact of the matter is simply that Japan is not an attractive job market for skilled professionals. Salary is low, the language barrier is high, and the work environment is notoriously poor.