Even though I worked at a Japanese company, I didn't work Japanese hours. 10am-7pm were my typical hours.

Good developers are in demand everywhere! If you're a developer who has some side-project / open source contribution you can show off, I think finding a job isn't too tough.

I can't really comment on now vs 2006. I had no network back then, so that job was literally the only interesting looking one I could find. Now, I know of lots of good companies.