Political rights
Freedom, democracy, gender inequality and corruption
The World Audit on corruption, democracy and freedom of press in 2005, ranks Japan 21st in terms of corruption, behind all Western countries (+ Singapore & Mongolia), except Portugal, Italy and Greece.
Japan is ranked 30th for democracy, after all developed countries but Greece and Singapore, and even after three developing countries: Uruguay, Costa Rica and Mauritius.
Regarding freedom of press, Japan ranks 25th, just ahead of some Eastern European countries, but well behind all other Western countries.
The World Audit has classified Japan in division 2 in terms of democracy, along with South Korea, South Africa, Latvia, Bulgaria, Greece and Panama. All Western countries apart from Greece are in division 1.
Freedom in decision making is the lowest among developed countries. As for political rights and civil liberties, Freedom House has classified Japan as rank 1.5. It isn't bad on a worldwide basis, but Japan is in fact behind all Western countries and some others regarding political freedom.
According to the U.N. Human Development Reports for 2005 (PDF, see table 26, page 303), Japan ranks 43rd worldwide for Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), well behind not only developed countries, but many developing countries too (e.g. Tanzania !). This means that the Japanese still have a long way to go in regard to equality between men and women.
Happiness
Nationmaster ranks Japan 34th in term of life satisfaction, behind all Western countries.
As for Happiness, Japan gets the 19th position, only before Spain, Italy and Portugal in the West.
Health & Society
Japan's life expectancy is among the highest in the world. According to the CIA World Factbook, Japan ranks 6th worldwide, but first among major countries.
Obesity (Excel) is the lowest among OECD countries along with South Korea.
However Tobacco consumption (Excel) is the 4th highest of OECD countries after the Netherlands, Turkey and South Korea.
According to the World Health Organization, Japan has the 3rd highest female suicide rate in the world after Sri Lanka and China. Japan's male suicide rate is still the highest in the developed world, although many Eastern European countries have higher rates.
Quality of accommodation
This is a slightly controversial point. Although Japan ranks quite high when looking at the number of TV per household or other electronic equipments, housing is typically poorly built, smaller than in the West, and lack what is considered as basic in some Western countries, such as insulation, central heating or double glazing. 1/3 of houses are built in non-fire-proof wood (data from the Japan Statistics Bureau.
What is more, recent scandals have revealed that at least 20% of houses in Japan use potentially life-threatening asbestos.
Notwithstanding the lack of comparative statistics, the above data on housing (and the author's own field study) are sufficient to determine that the quality of accommodation in Japan is inferior to that of OECD countries.
Economy
Public debt
The CIA Factbook's public debt ranking shows that Japan's current public debt was 154.60% of its GDP, the third highest figure in the world after Malawi and Lebanon. Among Western countries, the highest figures are for Italy (106.40%), Belgium (102%) and Greece (100.90%), while all other Western countries stand between 18.20% for Australia and 77% for Canada. The UK's public debt is 51%, while the USA, Spain, Germany and France's are between 62 and 69%.
GNI/GDP per capita
As the data for the GDP or GNI per capita sometimes varies from one source to another, I chose two reliable sources for comparison: the CIA Worldfact Book and World Bank (pdf file).
The CIA ranks Japan 17th worldwide in terms of GDP/capita ($28,200), while the World Bank ranks it 7th in GNI/capita ($34,510) and also 17th for GNI/capita at PPP* ($28,620). Both data are for 2003.
Of course, many of the countries outranking Japan are tiny (Cayman, Bermuda, San Marino, Luxembourg, Lichstenstein, Channel Isalnds...). Among major countries, the USA, Switzerland and Norway outrank Japan in all 3 lists.
In the two lists where Japan ranks 17th, the following countries also have a higher GDP/GNI per capita than Japan : Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Canada, Ireland, Belgium, Australia, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. The UK, France, Germany and Italy come just after Japan, with a very similar GDP per capita - only $500 to $1500 of difference, while the gap between Japan and the USA or Norway is $9,400.
It is worth noting that the GDP per capita in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area is about twice higher than the national average, due to the concentration of major companies' headquarters and governmental organisations. A similar phenomenon can be observed between London and the rest of the UK, although not in more decentralised countries.
Conclusion
Apart for its high life expectancy, relatively good health, low crime rate, and reasonable GDP per capita (far from exceptional though), Japan ranks well behind Western countries in all other fields, from freedom, democracy and gender issues, to quality of accommodation, life satisfaction and happiness.
So, based on these numbers, can Japan be considered a good place to live from the point of view of quality of life ? Worldwide, yes, but comparing to almost any Western countries certainly not.
*purchasing power parity
