The money quoted does NOT include tax, and as the HACS ads seem to indicate, they are looking for pilots with Australian and New Zealand residency to fill the positions. Therefore one would assume that the pilots will have to pay tax in one of those countries. Apparently ANA (Air Japan) have stated that they will NOT assist with the issuance of a resident visa for Japan, so that counts out trying to get away from Aussie/N.Z. tax by saying you were resident o/s, leaving you with about 60% of the quoted salary, AFTER TAX.
Not really such a great deal!
The JCAB licence course now takes about (only??) 4 months, including Radio Law and a practical test of the phoenetic alphabet. JCAB will monitor some of the written exams...penalty for cheating is a 2 year freeze until you are eligible for a re-sit!
Be prepared and WILLING to learn the Japanese way of doing things (there are 2 ways of doing things the easy way, and the Japanese way, which takes 5 times longer).
And NEVER, EVER, ask "Why?"!
The medicals are extremely thorough, and the initial failure rate is moderately high, even for those who have never had any problems before.
If you're out of work now, this one might be worth considering - bear in mind though it's a 5 1/2 year contract on an aging aeroplane. If you're currently employed, I'd be thinking long and hard, and asking HACS/PARC a lot of questions, esp. wrt tax and exactly WHAT travel arrangements they have in place for your days off.
The travel to and from Oz/N.Z. SHOULD be on a CONFIRMED First/Business class deal.