Starting in July 2012, as part of an effort to overhaul its immigration system, Japan will abolish the Alien Registration Act. In its place, the amended Immigration Act will manage the corresponding issues and information of the Alien Registration System for foreigners working in Japan. Though the new law has been passed by the Diet and is scheduled for immediate implementation to be administered by the Ministry of Justice, many applications of its details remain undetermined.

However, there are clear innovations in Japan’s new work-visa system. For example, a new “Residence Card,” which displays fewer details than the current alien registration card, but requires exhibiting details like the name and address of one’s employer, will be introduced.

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Following the last two years of salary freezes and lowered bonus structures, ex-pat packages in China and Japan have become a hot topic among U.S. and U.K. attorneys looking to relocate from the U.S. and U.K. to Asia. The top firms have weathered the economic crisis just fine according to data gathered by ALB Legal News, and most firms continue to offer competitive packages in Asia in order to attract and retain top legal talent. This is especially true of firms that, as newcomers to a given market, are anxious to increase their ranks.

Firms remain committed to the region, investing resources into their foreign offices, hiring or promoting partners, and offering competitive remuneration packages to their strongest attorneys, especially bilingual ones. While ex-pat packages have for the most part remained stable at top firms, especially in more mature legal markets like Tokyo and Hong Kong, we have seen more variance than ever over the past year. Increasingly there is a willingness to negotiate and make offers on a case-by-case basis.

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If you want to know how an international assignment is really going, ask your spouse.  It is well known that the success or failure of a stint abroad can depend largely on the contentment of trailing family members.  Below you will find some personal insights gathered from our candidates throughout Asia regarding the practicalities of a move abroad and what helps dependents make the adjustment to a new life.  While no single solution will work for everyone, the following suggestions have worked very well for our candidates overseas.

Learn as much as possible about daily life before you leave.

One of our candidates in Hong Kong highly recommends that, if possible, go on a fact-finding trip before you make the move.  This may be best completed when you are visiting the location for interviews.  You may be fortunate enough to find a home on these initial visits, but even if not, at least you will have an idea of what is available and what you may wish to pack or leave behind.  If you have children, be sure to take lots of pictures to show them and pique their interest.  This can often help with pre-trip nerves in that it will help you and your family know what to expect, what a new home may look like, where they might go to school, or what the shops and surrounding streets look like.   Language lessons can also help, and don’t sneer at any offer for cross-cultural training-it can really help.

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Let me paint a picture for you. It’s 2008, and you’re an expatriate working in Hong Kong. You receive a hefty housing allowance of US$6,000) a month, your employer, a top international law firm, is paying for your kids’ education at the best international school in the area. Weekends are filled with free trips home to the States, and afternoons lounging at an exclusive country club. You spend money like water, since there always seems to be more. You may work 100 hours a week, but at least you don’t have to drive anywhere—the company-provided chauffeurs take care of that.

Fast forward to 2009. Your housing allowance has been reduced and rolled into your salary and you’ve started footing that international school bill. You no longer belong to that country club, and those free trips home are now only a memory. Oh, and that chauffeur? He’s long gone.

According to a recent Reuters article, many Wall Street banks, hit hard by the recent financial crisis, have started slashing expat perks. Lee Quane, the Asian director of a company that advises on expatriate packages, says that benefits can amount to almost double the base salary of an expatriate in Hong Kong. These benefits, once standard, are now too costly for most institutions. In fact, the article states that new hires aren’t even offered housing allowances now—and that several lower-level executives aren’t offered any expatriate packages at all.

Expatriates have also decreased their spending. The reduced benefits and unpredictable economy have made expatriates think twice about their extravagant lifestyles. “Anecdotal evidence,” reveals the Reuters article, reveals that several bankers are moving to smaller apartments and cheaper neighborhoods. The Expat Explorer Survey from HSBC Bank International reports that 63% of expats (from all industries) worldwide have “changed their attitude to spending,” and that 60% have cut back on luxuries such as holidays and leisure activities.

Still, expat jobs remain lucrative, and expat lifestyles remain lavish. The survey states that “Asia…[has] the highest-paid expats in the world.” About a third of all expats in Hong Kong, make over US$250,000 a year, while close to 40% make over US$200,000. Singapore also boasts wealthy expats, with 47% reporting over $4,000 a month in disposable income.

Is it still worth it to work abroad? Most seem to think so. Despite the global recession, 85% of expats say they’re staying put. They may no longer have their chauffeurs, but their six-figure salaries are cushioning the blow.

Photo by zh FongCYu

Each city has its own special perks for young lawyers.  New York has the theater, the cultural events and the bars open on each side of your block as you stumble out of work at midnight.  California has the flip-flops at work.  Chicago has…well, I’m sure they have something (yes, I have my favorite cities and I’m sticking to them).

But Hong Kong has something that no other city does: a mile-long covered escalator which carries most expats from their bed to their office and back each day.  It is almost, but not entirely, completely unlike a stairway to heaven.  But it is a luxury, of sorts; the thought of riding the escalator with slippers on and changing into shoes at work has passed my mind once or twice.

This escalator of dreams links the Central business and Mid-levels districts on Hong Kong Island.  Creatively dubbed the Central-Mid-levels escalators, it is puported to be the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world, although the designation is a little bit of stretch since it is actually made up of numerous smaller escalators.  Some escalators (thankfully) stop before they interesect with roads.  Other breaks exist because no one has yet perfected the switchback escalator for hilly terrain.

Mid-levels is an up-scale residential area where many expat and local professionals live, preferred because it is not far from the Central business district.  If you end up working with a Hong Kong firm or office, you will most likely end up in an apartment here.  But the neighborhood is basically on the top of a mountain in comparison to the business district.  It might make a nice bike ride down, but it would be a huge non-monetary cost-of-living for expats to be forced to hike all the way back at night.

Here’s the rub.  The escalator only moves in one direction at a time: downhill from 6 to 10 a.m., taking commuters downtown, and uphill from 10:15 a.m. to midnight.  Keep that in mind when planning your all-nighters, work related or otherwise.