Japan vs. the World: Putting Its Position in Perspective

Though Japan has endured its fair share of sociopolitical concerns over the last twenty years, it is important to keep Japan’s position in the world in perspective.

Sent by reader Taro, this interactive graph from NewsWeek provides an excellent visual representation of Japan’s global standing. Unsurprisingly, Japan ranked first in health and fifth in education. It is important note, however, that Japan fared poorly in NewsWeek’s assessment of the average quality of life, economic dynamism and political environment in the country, ranking 13th, 10th and 25th respectively.

With the rising unemployment rate, record levels of public debt and the Diet’s political deadlock, Japan has nowhere to go but down unless significant progress is made in those areas. But can Japan do it?

“Yes, we can.” – Barack Obama