Those kinds of rankings and stats don't mean much. People's subjective experiences do, however. How do you explain the way respectable Japanese people turn away from their country and actively denounce it? That's not a phenomenon you see with Koreans for example. More importantly these Japanese people always speak highly of SK compared to Japan, saying that it's far more advanced and refined.

One Japanese friend of mine put it aptly: "Once you go out into the world and become educated, I just can't help but be ashamed and embarrassed of my own country" - this was the exact same sentiment I had when I visited Japan.

It's not that I had "bad" experiences in Japan per se, I simply observed the people and their society and deemed that it's very lacking. Despite having some Japanese blood in me, I thought that I didn't want to be considered the same as them. Their society lags horribly behind the world ma'am