Interesting...
Thanks for that link, though I find it a little bit ambiguous that the measure is trust but the question asked is "In this country, do you have confidence in… national government?", which I think is slightly different to what I was alluding to which is trust in the motives of government.
For instance I trust the motives of the health establishment in the UK, but I have considerably less confidence that I will get the best outcomes from it.
Does that make sense? I wonder if it applies here and people in Japan are not confident in the ability of their government to deliver good outcomes. Whereas in the US a significant number question the motives.
Or I could just be wrong :)
Always worth entertaining that possibility.
Yes, the community-oriented culture thing seems like a great explanation.