[steven]

I'm gonna have to agree with RickOShay about the pay!

If you're from the states, you don't have to pay taxes (to Japan or the US). You will also get great insurance (which I think covers half of what you'd pay without it).

The exchange rate is a huge part of it. If you are looking to pay back student loans and stuff like that, then you'd do pretty good getting payed in yen (for the time being). In 8 years or so it could be better or worse, but that's for the gods to decide.

Some costs that they don't seem to talk about are things like paying for school lunch, school trips (that you may or may not go on with teachers or city officials), and other little things. However, you get a mean pension (which I think amounts to something like 8k after 3 years), a portion of your rent may be payed, and your traveling expenses (related to work) will often be meticulously calculated and reimbursed. This all depends on many factors though.

The reality is you might not get a nice round 3000 a month... it might be closer to 2500-2600. That doesn't mean you're not getting that extra 4-5 hundo, that all goes to your pension and things like that. Given expenses like school lunches and "enkais" in reality you might bring home 2300-2400 a month. Saving half of that shouldn't be hard at all.

If you do something crazy like major in Japanese in college like I did (which really doesn't have a lot of purpose) then doing JET might be your best bet. I think this worked out better for me than trying to get a job for Toyota. Well... I might've been able to get a job with them in the Summer of '08, but even if I did get that job I doubt VERY highly I'd still have a job with them given the current situation.