[zackhall]

Can anyone shed any light on how Japan seems to be doing so well in this metric when all of the other countries that they are close to geographically and culturally are doing very poorly?

[gwilkes]

I believe a lot of this is due to the US occupation of Japan after WWII which turned Japan in a democracy and gave it laws modeled after the American New Deal. More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan#Outcomes_of...

[xyzzy123]

Japan may be geographically close to lots of places, but culturally, they're not close to anywhere.

[zackhall]

That's a very good point. I made that statement out of my perceived, and very naive, "closeness" to other cultures.

[djt]

Read up on Japanese history and come to your own conclusions. It is a unique country unlike any other in the world.