Japan outranks 74 countries, takes top spot for best reputation in the world

Monday, August 19, 2019

 In a new report Japan outranked 74 countries and came out as the country with the best reputation in the world. The FutureBrand Country Index 2019 drops the traditional paradigm of GDP growth as the yardstick for global status and was in favour of factors like country’s vales system , quality of life, heritage and culture.

While the authors attributed its success to everything from natural beauty, culture, gastronomy to international exports like Muji, Uniqlo to Marie Kondo.

Analysts say that a decade ago the Japanese brands were obscure but now they represent Japan’s greatest export and international appeal.

A report from the World Tourism Organisation states that Japan has experienced six years of consecutive double-digit growth in tourism.

According to Weber Shandwick’s social listening analysis, Japan is known to boasts the second-highest number of social media mentions with key hashtags like #mtfuji and #soba.

Mindfulness,  conscious consumerism along with experience has become the new global currency and top-performing countries placing a higher premium on them. The top five spots are Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland.

In the 2019 edition which is the eight report from FutureBrand the analysts took a decidedly different approach and was looking beyond the country’s GDP. It added new categories like ‘purpose’ and ‘experience’ to their list of criteria.

In 2014 the last study was published.

A country’s value system, quality of life, business potential, heritage and culture, tourism and products and services were the subcategories under these headings.

Considering the environmental friendliness the countries were measured.

The analysts wrote that in the era of #yolo (you only live once) the term ‘quality of life’ took on renewed significance and greater importance.

Infact the new pursuit is ‘living richly, not just living a rich life’.

From the last published report the US and UK fell several spots , 12^th  and 19^th respectively. This was due to a rise in populist factions and stinging headlines concerning extremism, immigration policies that led to unpopular approval ratings.

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