Japan may no longer be No. 1 in economic efficiency, but it is now No. 5 in "peacefulness," according to the Global Peace Index (GPI), an annual report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. In the recently released survey on world peace, Japan moved up one place from 2007 to become the fifth most peaceful nation in the world out of 140 nations.
While Japan may never catch Iceland at the top, its position is far from Iraq's at the bottom. Japan has much to celebrate in these findings, but a lot to learn from them as well.
The GPI draws on expert analysis on a number of key indicators to provide an overall view of each country's relative peaceful nature. In areas such as literacy, levels of violent crime, access to firearms, GDP and general openness, Japan appears to be doing fairly well, or at least no worse than most other developed countries. Much remains to be done in these areas, of course, and the overall ranking glosses over continuing problem spots.