Part of the problem is software development just isn't seen as an integral part of company operations. A friend of mine is a developer in Japan. He makes less

Part of the problem is software development just isn't seen as an integral part of company operations. A friend of mine is a developer in Japan. He makes less money relative to his peers than he would in the US. He gets about the same amount of respect from the company as the guys on the loading dock - management doesn't really understand what he does and they view him as a replaceable part. I asked him why he doesn't move to another company, something which is becoming more accepted. He shrugged and said they were all pretty much the same. He's planning to leave software behind as soon as he can get promoted, and they'll replace my friend with a guy whose only experience is a doujinshi game that was written by himself in college.