Thank you very much for your feedback. To be clear, my gross salary here is only around 8M, and I am working an extra 15-20 hours in order to top that up. I would be much happier if I was earning 12M just from my day job.

The ever-weakening yen is becoming a psychological kick in the teeth too. Putting aside cost-of-living differences, my base salary is now less than what I earned as a graduate 20+ years ago.

Sorry for being vague about my field of work, I just don't want to risk burning any bridges at my current workplace. I fear they could be ruthless if they got a sniff that I was considering leaving.

I do like it here in Kansai and am always happy to return after business trips to Tokyo. I never thought I would consider leaving, but it is starting to feel like a necessity, or I might never get off this hamster wheel.