For every beautiful teahouse or trendy designer shop in Japan, there is at least a couple of acres of really depressing, concrete covered "mansion" lands. Whichever Nihonjin came up with the idea of calling those ugly, soulless rows of apartment blocks "mansions" deserves to be shot in the head for cruelty to the people -- but not after being awarded a medal for brilliance in marketing! In other countries, you have to be a millionaire to live in a mansion. In Japan anyone can live in a mansion!
The question is: if you were really a millionaire, where would you want to live? Beverly Hills? The South of France? Tokyo or Kyoto? Japan might be interesting, but is it a great place to live? As far as I am concerned, the only thing it has going is its futuristic vibe -- and China these days seems to be getting more futuristic than Japan. When the Olympics are held in Beijing in 2008, you will see how futuristic China has become.