Some years ago I wrote about the cost of living in Japan - mainly for the benefit of those who are being hired outside the country. By covering some of the typical structuring and perks, though, I hope this article will be useful for those of you negotiating new terms with your employers - especially if you work alongside expat colleagues who probably are on these terms. If nothing else, you can tell the boss how much cheaper it will be to give you a pay raise than to bring in another expat!

Terrie Lloyd2007 - A Tale of Two Halves

Last year was a year to remember. It was punctuated by two strong cross-currents: frantic activity and optimism in the first half of the year, then a loss of confidence, caution and a lot more frantic activity of the negative sort in the second half.

Your recent article about the introduction of J-SOX was very interesting and informative. With J-SOX being a regulation, as opposed to a familiar market trend, this phase of change is definitely intriguing.

As you stated in your piece, Japan has just over 5% of the number of certified public accountants than the US. By implementing a risk-based top-down approach the strain on SOX-fluent resources should be minimalized, however, this theory relies heavily on the effective introduction of compliance focused software and database management systems.

J@pan Inc's comprehensive directory of healthcare services in Japan.