Japan drops to 3rd place in U.S. News 2020 Best Countries rankings

What could have happened to bump Japan out of its second-place glory?

Sure, Japan has its ups and downs, but some things are getting better, right? Despite the harsh working culture, you could say Japan is a great place to live for the most part.

That’s probably why Japan was announced as the third place winner in the 19th annual U.S. News 2020 Best Countries rankings! The Land of the Rising Sun was overtaken by Canada (Switzerland topped the list for the fourth year in a row, by the way). Results were derived from a global survey of over 20,000 people in 36 countries around the world using questions from a research team at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton.

The survey explained that while Japan ranked pretty high in terms of it being easy to start and run a business and cultural influence, it wasn’t so hot in the risk-taking department, and it claimed that Japanese businesses aren’t very open.

Considering that Japan was the only non-European country (besides the United States) that made the Top 10, though, you could argue that they have something to be proud of. When asked what they thought of the survey results, however, Netizens had a very mixed batch of opinions.

“Ghosn, the worst one was Lebanon.”
“Wow, I didn’t expect it to get such a good score.”
“Why don’t you try asking single mothers in Japan what they think?”
“If there was another ranking for ‘dumb citizens that get happy about their high ranking,’ Japan would take first place.”
“Japanese people are so negative. I’m pretty happy.”
“Japanese people are happy because they have anime and manga…”

Okay, the Ghosn remark may have been a low blow, but it’s still hot news in Japan. And it seems like some people are still pretty happy in the nation; we’re pretty happy to be able to write about it! If you want to visit the third-best country in the world, here are some of the best places you can go.

Sources: Livedoor News via My Game News Flash, U.S. News
Featured image: Flickr/Radek Kucharski
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