What is the bonus for transferring?

I have been offered a long term (18-24 months) transfer from the Detroit area to Toyota City Japan. Although I welcome challenges in life there will certainly be some social sacrifices involved. I'm curious if anyone else has been put in a similar situation.

I would be given a certain amount of money per day for my food and expenses. Also my furnished living quarters (appartment?) would be covered by my company. I'm wondering if anyone else has taken such an offer and if they were given a bonus for accepting about how much (perhaps what percentage of salary, or what kind of salary increase).

Thanks in advance all!!

Cheers!
Nomad

All really depends on the employer and the terms of your contract.

If it is a japanese company, I would imagine that they would take care of your expenses like housing, transportaion and possibly food as you have mentioned, but I rarely hear of a Japanese company offering signing bonuses for new employees or let alone employees going overseas. A Japanese company will usually give a `teate` of several hundred dollars a month added to your salary for the inconvience of living overseas.

By the way, I live in Toyota city and work for Toyota, so if you have any questions about the city or the company feel free to ask.

Good luck!

I'm on a 10 month transfer from North America and recieved a 1 month bonus. My coworker came for 1 month and recieved about 500 USD.

We also recieved free housing + utilities, transportation, and living (food) subsidy. Pretty much everything was paid for (even a trip home to visit).

This is pretty typical for most large companies, Japanese or not.

Thanks all for responding. My original offer was 5% of my salary. I might see if I can get more than that. Not that I want to come off greedy, but it is a lot to ask someone to leave their home and language, etc. If I do go I'll be taking my girlfriend as well. She is looking into an english speaking school. We'll see what comes out of it.

Cheers!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are getting transferred to a group company overseas, I would take that as a learning experience, which is likely to pay off in the form of better job prospects once you get back to the US (for example, better chances for promotion when you get back to the US, because of the broader experiences). Or, if you are asked to participate in a certain project in Japan that requires your specific skills, maybe it's something you *could* ask a bonus for. So far I've seen people transferred on a 6-month, 1-year, or 2-year assignment from a company in US to a group/affiliate company in Japan, and many jumped at the opportunity, while I know of a few others who declined due to personal circumstances (for example girlfriend pregnant at the time, etc.)

Note that for your girlfriend it might pose a slight difficulty, as there is no "fiance visa" for Japan that would allow her to work in Japan... (if you are married, she could obtain "dependent" visa and engage in part-time work).
Good luck in everything! :)