stereo, I agree Kap did doa good job ouotlining the cost of living and other points
but my friend, if you go there with stars in your eyes, you will be sorely disappointed. I understand that you aren`t after a cultural critique, but don`t forget that you will spoend more time outside of work than you will, and these are the issues that will get right up your nose
A few other points of which you should be aware are
ANY company you work for will violate your contract, and it will be a misunderstanding. It will be a misunderstanding the next time it happens as well; exactly the same thing, but it will be someone else in the company who perpetrates the breach
you will have dispatchers and mechanics trying to override the authority of the PIC and Japcaps tolerating it. If you`re an FO then you will watch the Japcap cop it and it won`t all be good
CRM - crews will speak in Japanese to the company and CA`s and you will not know what is happening because they won`t tell you unless pressured, and even then you may not get the truth. For a captain that is an intolerable situation
I know of several instances where a Japcap, as PF, in the company for which I worked making PA`s downto 500` on final in CAT1 conditions.
ATC talking and pilots responding in Japanese so the rest of us don`t know what`s going on and that is downright dangerous
The turbulence over Japan, due largely to the topography and jetstreams is worse than I have experienced anywhere in the world. It can be violent, is frequent and often frightening
These people are impractical to the point where it is infuriating. They have difficulty accepting that it would be wise to leave 5-10 mins early if the takeoff queue will be long, sometimes 10-15 waiting, or heading into 150 on the nose so that youcan arrive on time. In spite of the PIC demands, the ramp coordinators will take no notice.
People, including crews, come to work with colds/flu and pass it onn to all. Because of the stupid no work, no pay system here, (no sick leave) they must come to work. You will have more runny noses here than anywhere else.
aviation in Japan is run like an aero club. You regularly, every sector, complete 14 columns in your log book, with one sector to a line (fills log books very quickly) and the captain must sign each sector!!
The whole country is a sheltered workshop with high employment but low productivity except for foreign pilots. Way too many staff in most companies. They come in early and go home late but don`t do much during the time they`re there
In case you think it`s all negative, here`s something positive.
The FO`s aren`t entirely responsible for their standard. They join airlines with under 200 hours and go onto everything up to 747s as FO`s, and then are given no flying by the Japcaps.
The scenery in Japan, from the air, is spectacular. Volcanoes, high mountains, snow and seas.
The infrastructure, as you would expect in a country as big as New Zealand but with 125 milion people, is outstanding. The freeways, bridges, tunnels, railways etc are simply amazing
Haneda airport handles 290,000 jet movements a year, most between 0630 and 2300 because it`s the domestic airport and all airports are curfewed, most shutting down at aboput 2130
It is about as intensely developed as any place on earth with tunnels to the mainnland, for road and rail, subways, overpasses, and a freeway running right through the centre
Just give it some serious though stereo, because whilst you may see bulk $$ now, and think that you can accept any $hit treatment for those $$, that soon wears off and you`re left with everything that will pi$$ you off