On the most recently released Global Peace Index, Japan ranked 5th (behind only Iceland, Denmark, Norway and New Zealand).

According to their site,

The index is composed of 24 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, which combine internal and external factors ranging from a nation's level of military expenditure to its relations with neighbouring countries and the level of respect for human rights. These indicators were selected by an international panel of academics, business people, philanthropists and peace institutions. The GPI is collated and calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit...

The GPI was founded by Steve Killelea, an Australian international technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. It forms part of the Institute for Economics and Peace, a new global think tank dedicated to the research and education of the relationship between economics, business and peace. This report is written in cooperation with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Actually, all the criteria are listed here (and I think Japan probably does much better on the remaining 21), but I laughed when I read the 3 that were mentioned in the explanation.

(If there is already a thread on the Global Peace Index, I'm sorry--I did a quick search but didn't find anything)

So do karoshi and the high suicide rates contribute to Japan's social harmony ?

Buraku wrote:So do karoshi and the high suicide rates contribute to Japan's social harmony ?

Fucking idiot who finds something negative to say about a positive story. Fucking loser. Japan is infinitely more peaceful than the fucking hell hole of a country you come from i am sure.

Jack wrote:Fucking idiot who finds something negative to say about a positive story. Fucking loser. Japan is infinitely more peaceful than the fucking hell hole of a country you come from i am sure.

How the fuck would you know, Tourist?

The problem with surveys like this is that they are extremely subjective and tend to cherry pick their catergories to get the result they want, in this case to make the US look bad. How is it that China with it's huge miltary, massive internal repression, state support for some of the worst regimes in the world, and territorial disputes with virtually all of it's neighbors be 20 twenty spots more peaceful on this scale?:shake:

dimwit wrote:The problem with surveys like this is that they are extremely subjective and tend to cherry pick their categories to get the result they want, in this case to make the US look bad. How is it that China with it's huge miltary, massive internal repression, state support for some of the worst regimes in the world, and territorial disputes with virtually all of it's neighbors be 20 twenty spots more peaceful on this scale?:shake:

Word! I guess you can say Japan is peaceful, if you consider stamping out FG's rights, arresting people on a whim without provocation, not allowing you to speak your mind, treating FG's in many cases as third class citizens. Police having full authority to without restraints or standards to get away with and do as they please. Denying trying to get into apartments and sometimes milking them dry of all their money just to get a tiny jail cell.
Yea, while no country is perfect, it goes completely over my head how Japan can get that high of a ranking. It's peaceful, but they don't tell you what measures this society will do to keep that peace.

xenomorph42 wrote:Word! I guess you can say Japan is peaceful, if you consider stamping out FG's rights, arresting people on a whim without provocation, not allowing you to speak your mind, treating FG's in many cases as third class citizens. Police having full authority to without restraints or standards to get away with and do as they please. Denying trying to get into apartments and sometimes milking them dry of all their money just to get a tiny jail cell.
Yea, while no country is perfect, it goes completely over my head how Japan can get that high of a ranking. It's peaceful, but they don't tell you what measures this society will do to keep that peace.

You whine too much.

Jack wrote:You whine too much.

Come over here and live for awhile. You know, Jack Japan in the far east. Not just visiting for a day and a half.. Try to do business that is not an invited one time deal. You might find it is different from your 8,000 buck bar bill joints....

dimwit wrote:The problem with surveys like this is that they are extremely subjective and tend to cherry pick their catergories to get the result they want, in this case to make the US look bad. How is it that China with it's huge miltary, massive internal repression, state support for some of the worst regimes in the world, and territorial disputes with virtually all of it's neighbors be 20 twenty spots more peaceful on this scale?:shake:

Just to clarify, I didn't mean to give credibility to the survey by posting it. In fact, I think if you look at their criteria, a number of problems jump out immediately.

First, they openly conflate two different constructs, internal and external peace, with the only justification being, "a greater level of internal peace is likely to lead to, or at least correlate with, lower external conflict," which is, I think it's safe to say, absolute BS.

Second, they have certain criteria that seem (on some level) to be measuring the same thing, e.g. "Level of disrespect for human rights (Political Terror Scale)" and "Potential for terrorist acts". Not to mention, how do you actually objectively measure potential for terrorist acts?

Finally, they have criteria ("Likelihood of violent demonstrations") that don't really appear to be measuring the same thing in all places; there's a low likelihood of violent demonstrations in both the US and China, but for VERY different reasons.

The fact that Japan ranks 5th only serves to reinforce certain stereotypes of Japan held by people like Jack, who think that everyone in Japan eats sushi every night for dinner before going to bed to contemplate the latest koan they've been assigned.

Gilligan wrote:The fact that Japan ranks 5th only serves to reinforce certain stereotypes of Japan held by people like Jack, who think that everyone in Japan eats sushi every night for dinner before going to bed to contemplate the latest koan they've been assigned.

Exactly and it also reeks of a large donation of dust from the Japan Foundation, who loves to support "friendly" surveys of that type....

I note that Japan is the only country that has been officially in a state of war for over 70 years.

It seems like that a pile of grudge against Japanese make your gaijin's brains go mad.
By the way, what we understand from this survey is that the more purity of the ethnic, the more peaceful the society is.

Takechanpoo wrote:It seems like that a pile of grudge against Japanese make your gaijin's brains go mad.
By the way, what we understand from this survey is that the more purity of the ethnic, the more peaceful the society is.

We can see clearly. Remember that!

As of 2006, Japan had the world's 5th highest military expenditure when calculated in market exchange rate terms. Peace country, my ass.

http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_major_spenders.pdf

Takechanpoo wrote:By the way, what we understand from this survey is that the more purity of the ethnic, the more peaceful the society is.

Take my boy, you nailed it.

Doctor Stop wrote:As of 2006, Japan had the world's 5th highest military expenditure when calculated in market exchange rate terms. Peace country, my ass.

http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_major_spenders.pdf

Certainly business or even logical thinking not being your strong attributes but let me point out that on a per capita basis Japan ranks 10th in military spending. Having North Korea and China within easy missile reach I think Japan should increase its military spending by 200%.

So for all of you discontent with japan's ranking on this survey, whats your take on Iceland, Denmark, Norway and New Zealand?

Are those OK simply because they are all not Japan?

So far I haven't been convinced that the concluded rankings are all that inaccurate or off base.

Zeth3D wrote:So for all of you discontent with japan's ranking on this survey, whats your take on Iceland, Denmark, Norway and New Zealand?

Are those OK simply because they are all not Japan?

So far I haven't been convinced that the concluded rankings are all that inaccurate or off base.

That might be a question better posted on a board for people living in Iceland, Denmark, Norway and New Zealand.

Jack wrote:Certainly business or even logical thinking not being your strong attributes but let me point out that on a per capita basis Japan ranks 10th in military spending. Having North Korea and China within easy missile reach I think Japan should increase its military spending by 200%.

Now that is funny! You obviously dont have the slightest grasp of Japan's current economic, demographic, and political realities.

Keep 'em coming IQ man.

Charles wrote:I note that Japan is the only country that has been officially in a state of war for over 70 years.

Longer actually. Japan has been technically at a state of war with Montenegro since 1904.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_extended_by_diplomatic_irregularity

dimwit wrote:Longer actually. Japan has been technically at a state of war with Montenegro since 1904.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_extended_by_diplomatic_irregularity

Odd list there, it doesn't include the unresolved state of war between Russia and Japan. But it appears that Montenegro resolved the conflict in 2006, according to the always-reliable random strangers on the internet that compiled this wikipedia page.

Jack wrote:You whine too much.

And you don't live in reality, my friend.

Zeth3D wrote:So for all of you discontent with japan's ranking on this survey, whats your take on Iceland, Denmark, Norway and New Zealand?

Are those OK simply because they are all not Japan?

So far I haven't been convinced that the concluded rankings are all that inaccurate or off base.

Based upon what? Your professional opinion or concrete unsubstantiated facts.

Charles wrote:Odd list there, it doesn't include the unresolved state of war between Russia and Japan. But it appears that Montenegro resolved the conflict in 2006, according to the always-reliable random strangers on the internet that compiled this wikipedia page.

That comment helps to explain SO much. Allow me to recommend a book to help you overcome that probem.

Zeth3D wrote:So far I haven't been convinced that the concluded rankings are all that inaccurate or off base.

i think gilligan said it best in the first post, the first three criteria mentioned definitely exclude japan as they spend a lot on the military (where im not exactly sure about exact military spending, according to this japan sent 600 troops to iraq, denmark sent 545, norway 150, new zealand 61 troops, and iceland a whopping 2 troops).
japan's current conflicts with the two koreas, china as well as russia would definitely weigh heavily with regards to japan's relationship with its neighbors.. as far as i know none of the other countries have such a long history of border disputes and continued war with its neighbors, but as ttjereth said, somebody living in or from these other countries would be much better prepared to answer these questions.
with regards to human rights, give me a break..this is the clearest part where japan loses out in my opinion.
japan's death penalty legislation is EVEN behind the united states (while the other countries dont even have the death penalty). also, as you can read about on this post japan only recently signed an international convention on child abduction. police have the ability to hold prisoners for up to 28 days without booking them (im not sure about the other top four, but i know in the states its just 48 hours) and when they go to trial the have a 99% chance of being found guilty (and no, japanese cops are not that efficient) .. and why stop there? i havent even talked about forced abduction of asian and eastern european women for use in the sex industry. or while on the subject, why not bring up the continued disparaging condition of female employees in the workplace? or the numerous race issues in regards to ethnic koreans living in japan, or the lower caste burakumin?
i dont think anybody is saying that japan shouldnt be somewhere near the top of the list, but number five seems a bit fixed and unrealistic (which of course is my opinion).

Visitor K wrote:i think gilligan said it best in the first post, the first three criteria mentioned definitely exclude japan as they spend a lot on the military (where im not exactly sure about exact military spending, according to this japan sent 600 troops to iraq, denmark sent 545, norway 150, new zealand 61 troops, and iceland a whopping 2 troops).
japan's current conflicts with the two koreas, china as well as russia would definitely weigh heavily with regards to japan's relationship with its neighbors.. as far as i know none of the other countries have such a long history of border disputes and continued war with its neighbors, but as ttjereth said, somebody living in or from these other countries would be much better prepared to answer these questions.
with regards to human rights, give me a break..this is the clearest part where japan loses out in my opinion.
japan's death penalty legislation is EVEN behind the united states (while the other countries dont even have the death penalty). also, as you can read about on this post japan only recently signed an international convention on child abduction. police have the ability to hold prisoners for up to 28 days without booking them (im not sure about the other top four, but i know in the states its just 48 hours) and when they go to trial the have a 99% chance of being found guilty (and no, japanese cops are not that efficient) .. and why stop there? i havent even talked about forced abduction of asian and eastern european women for use in the sex industry. or while on the subject, why not bring up the continued disparaging condition of female employees in the workplace? or the numerous race issues in regards to ethnic koreans living in japan, or the lower caste burakumin?
i dont think anybody is saying that japan shouldnt be somewhere near the top of the list, but number five seems a bit fixed and unrealistic (which of course is my opinion).

But, Japan has four seasons.....

As I thought, you gaijin dudes know nothing.
The reason Japan's military expenditure is so high is that Uncle Sam have made Japan buy U.S military goods by extraordinary inflated prices. The actual expenditure is aprox a 2/3 of official one.

Takechanpoo wrote:It seems like that a pile of grudge against Japanese make your gaijin's brains go mad.
By the way, what we understand from this survey is that the more purity of the ethnic, the more peaceful the society is.

Take my boy, you nailed it.

Shows what you know Jack]nailed[/I] anything in his lifetime.

As to what Take was refering to, let's take a quick look.

#4 New Zealand--nice pure race ya got there.
#6 Ireland--no offense to the Irish, but that country's been invaded more often than Greiji's goats
#9 Luxembourg--a country well-known for the ethnicity of its people
#11 Canada--Jack

Takechanpoo wrote:As I thought, you gaijin dudes know nothing.
The reason Japan's military expenditure is so high is that Uncle Sam have made Japan buy U.S military goods by extraordinary inflated prices. The actual expenditure is aprox a 2/3 of official one.

What can I say? It's cheap at twice the price!