Japan is the world's fifth most peaceful nation, according to a report released Wednesday by international businessman Steve Killelea in conjunction with the research and advisory company Economist Intelligence Unit.
Ranked 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 an 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.