My company may be relocating me to Japan with my wife and two young children (5 and 8). It isn't clear whether the company is setting up a KK or JV or in the beginning I'll be colocated in a MNC with whom we have very strong connections. I'm looking for help to try to get a better feel for some of the following topics. I'm sure there are lots of FTers that can help, and it would be very much appreciated, but in case y'all feel that it isn't the right place to discuss this perhaps you can point me to a similar forum where I can find more information. Far too much of what I've found so far is targetted at people looking to move to Japan and teach English and not at businesspeople.


1) How to figure out a reasonable salary for an expat in the Japanese market.

2) Information on the types of things I should make sure to nail down in an expat package.

3) What to expect socially. Do expats tend to run as a pack?

4) Japanese language course options.

5) Children education options.

6) Options for children with special needs (i.e. Poor, but existant English; disgraphia; speech therapy, etc)

7) Taxation issues

8) Spousal work permit issues

9) Medical research employment possibilities

10) I've read the posts on the Health Insurance issues. Great information. I'm wondering what types of packages do companies normally give in expat packages?

11) Anything I might be missing. This would be a first time for me relocating and the first time the company has relocated anyone to Asia.

I'm sure my questions are naive but any help will be appreciated.