How did you acquire a job in Japan? How difficult was it to obtain a residence? Was a guarantor necessary?
Obtaining residence: my current visa is (quite long): "Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/ Int'l Services" (技術・人文知識・国際業務) I got this visa sponsored by my first company, which is the most common thing for foreigners. Mine is 5 years, some are just a year long. It all depends on the company and how they file your paperwork.
I don't have permanent residency. I could switch over to spousal visa, but since I still have a lot of time left with my visa, I'm not going to bother the bureaucracy. Also, getting residency isn't as easy; it's like a point system here: how long you've been working, if you went to school in Japan, JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), etc.
Guarantor is only necessary for renting apartments (from my experience).
Regarding tax, it doesn't change. There aren't any breaks nor special levees for foreigners/people with just a work-visa. You get taxed the same (you can even participate in ふるさと納税 [furusato-nōzei] which is a system where you can decide to pay a certain amount to a different prefecture for tax deductions the following year + a gift from the prefecture that you can pick. The gifts are the best part; you can get high grade Japanese beef, high quality fruits, etc).