Sorry for the slow response. I didn't notice your question. I hope you see it!

I currently live in Japan. I started my career in Canada and have worked in the UK as well. Different countries have different challenges. For example, it's easy for me to do what I do in Japan since I have given up the "salary man" track a long time ago. I think it would be quite difficult, socially, to make that kind of transition in Japan, though -- especially if you are married. Also in Canada, no matter what kind of low paying programmer job I got, I was never going to starve. There was never any real risk in trying to optimise my happiness even if I ended up pissing off my boss and getting fired. Of course, as it turned out my efforts to be happy only increased my success at work so everything was fine in the end. As they say, your mileage may vary.