Japan ranks 21st for political corruption

Japan places 21st in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2003, even with Israel. The index measures businesspeople, academics, and risk analysts' perceived levels of corruption among politicians and public officials. In Asia, that puts Japan ahead of Taiwan and South Korea, but behind Singapore and Hong Kong (North Korea is one of the countries not included due to lack of data but "likely to be very corrupt," surprisingly). According to the survey, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, and New Zealand are the world's least corrupt countries.