> Japan is always different This is an interesting point. To generalise, I would say that Northeast Asia is significantly different (culturally and economical

> Japan is always different This is an interesting point. To generalise, I would say that Northeast Asia is significantly different (culturally and economically) compared to EU+USA+CAN+NZ+AU. Both (South) Korea and Taiwan are considered highly developed. They also do not experience this type of "democracy decay" (my term). If anything, they are expereincing the opposite. Personally, I think this is due to both are still relatively young as democracies, so their democratic institutions, when tested with difficult issues, continue to strengthen.