US Citizen moving to Japan

I am a US citizen and I have interest in moving to Japan around the time I turn 18, which is in a year. What will be the best option to go about this? From what I understand, there is:

Working visa, student visa, spouse visa, and visitor visa. I roughly understand the concepts of all of them, but I am wondering which one would be best for staying in japan very long term (hopefully, permanent) and the best way to go about it. I understand for a working visa you need a college education/degree to find any kind of work. For spouse visa, you obviously need to get married to Japanese national. I am not sure about the requirement for student visa though, so if someone could give me some information on this, I would appreciate it.

I have spoken Japanese for a majority of my life so being fluent in the language isn't a problem. Thank you everyone who will respond. :)

The requirement for a student visa is that you need to be a student. :) In addition to a university or similar, you can also attend a language school, but it's obviously not a long-term option, be it only because at some point you'll run out of money.

So, If I got into a university here, I can transfer with a student visa to Japan? Or is it easier to apply for university in Japan? And if I go to university in Japan and graduate, from then I can do a work visa? :) Thank you.

Japanese universities don't normally accept transfer students from abroad, you can either do an exchange semester/year or start in a Japanese university from scratch. In any case, if you get a bachelor degree from a Japanese university you will of course qualify for a work visa if you find a suitable job.