NATIONAL
Japan ranked as world's 5th most peaceful nation: report


Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 07:15 EDT LONDON — Japan has been ranked as the world's fifth most peaceful nation in a report launched Wednesday by international businessman Steve Killelea in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Polling behind Norway, New Zealand, Denmark and Ireland, Japan is the only Group of Eight country to fall in the top 10 of the Global Peace Index — the first study of its kind to compare peace on a worldwide level.
The ranking uses 24 indicators, including the number of external and internal wars fought, the level of respect for human rights and the import and export of major conventional weapons, in attempt to provide a quantitative measure of peace that is comparable over time.
"Japan is politically stable and measures of societal safety and security such as the level of violent crime, the likelihood of violent demonstrations and the number of homicides receive very low scores," the report states accounting for the positioning of the country.
Killelea — who is an advocate of peace as a tool to "solve the major challenges that the world faces" — believes that Japan can provide hope and optimism to countries further down the rankings that there can be "light at the end of the tunnel."
"When you look at the top 10, there are three nations, Japan, Germany and Ireland, which were all embroiled in conflict less than a century ago, so the lesson is that nations can change," he explained at the press launch of the index.
"I think that nations that are in conflict today have, in Japan, an example of how they can change over time but this is just a starting point — we need to understand why this change happens and then we can promote an environment of peace," Killelea added.
The report conveners were quick to point out, however, that nations could slide away from peacefulness, just as they could edge toward it and that Japan's steps to normalize its military could see the country falling down the rankings.
"Certainly if Japan deployed more troops outside of the United Nations mandate and made its military more sophisticated those things would count against it in the peace index and its scoring would change," Editorial Director for the Economist Intelligence Unit Robin Bew stated.
Remarking on the United States' poignantly low standing in the index at 96th place out of the 121 countries, just ahead of Iran, Bew pointed out that it was paying the price for extending its militarization beyond its own nation and creating a "pact Americana."
"The U.S. allows other countries, such as Japan, to shelter under its military umbrella and to perhaps spend less and have less sophisticated military machinery than they otherwise would," he explained.
"You could argue that to some extent America is being driven down the rankings after having taken on this role of global policeman and that has actually allowed other nations, notably including Japan, to score rather better on the rankings than it otherwise would," Bew added, emphasizing the often-ambiguous status of so-called peaceful countries.


The top 25 on the Global Peace Index:

1 Norway

2 New Zealand

3 Denmark

4 Ireland

5 Japan

6 Finland

7 Sweden

8 Canada

9 Portugal

10 Austria

11 Belgium

12 Germany

13 Czech Republic

14 Switzerland

15 Slovenia

16 Chile

17 Slovakia

18 Hungary

19 Bhutan

20 Netherlands

21 Spain

22 Oman

23 Hong Kong

24 Uruguay

25 Australia
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96 United States
97 Iran


The index was comprised of 24 indicators, ranging from a nation's level of military expenditure to its relations with neighbouring countries and the level of respect for human rights.

Funny how when the US declares itself global policeman since the first Gulf War it ranks on the bottom of the list - right next to the characters it is supposed to police. Is it really "policing" or doing the world injustice by playing up itself as "big brother"?? Also, those who take a bigger role in alliance with the US military are guilty by association and ranked lower..

Hmm, inquiring minds...

Gosh I thought Canada would be further up on the list. You hardly hear anything about Canada getting involved in anything.

Still pretty good for Canada considering they're compared to nations with relatively NO military influence or threat except for Japan in the top 10.. Canada has consistently posted cities in the top 10 with the usual suspects being Toronto and Vancouver as best cities to live in globally. However, cooperation with US (guilt by association) in military alliances and shared military training operations in western and atlantic Canada may have helped drop it's rating. Like what's Norway gonna do?? Invade countries with alpine skiers?? LOL.. hehee.

That's a good point. LOL for some reason I had a picture of Norwegian skiers with machine guns... eww not a good thought.

More like incestuous uncle than big brother but....

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