Nonetheless, there are still some spots with decent wages like London (particularly strong in fintech, but there's also lots of startups), Ireland (if you prefer to work for a branch of an American big-co), Singapore and Hong Kong if you'd like to change your environment entirely or even Australia. It all depends on your experience and selling skills though, as in most these places outside of US the difference between a senior's and junior's salary might determine your ability to rent a 3-room apartment vs a 100 square feet room in a shared-house with 8 flatmates :)
Most importantly, choose a place that you have a genuine interest towards. The rest doesn't really matter that much. If you pick a crowdy place you'd get a lower life quality in terms of purchasing power and living space, but higher from a cultural/social point of view and more job opportunities as well, so yeah, that's your tradeoff.
I have an American friend who came here to work for Adyen (Amsterdam-based unicorn) and recently bought a house here.
Western Europe is horrible when it comes to the software industry. Underpaid immigrants that are just happy to live somewhere with clean streets.
There is no shortage. Companies are just fighting for the same set of naive students and juniors. And complain when their shit offers get refused.
In Euro, London > Berlin > Paris.
I've seen the work culture (non programming) in both and as far as my friends go.. I have a VERY difficult time seeing my korean friends vs my tokyo friends.
As far as compensation, I'm not sure about Seoul but Tokyo wages for software is very low I've found.