Things like this tend to be very biased politically. What's more the standards used don't include a lot of factors that I feel are important.
For example when you look at a lot of those nations they are mono-ethnic, and mono-cultural for all intents and purposes. For example when you go to Japan and look around pretty much everyone your going to see is Japanese, finding someone who isn't Japanese can take some effort unless your in a tourist area. It's not like other nations such as the US where you can go to pretty much any area and see people of all kinds of differant ethnicities.
Tolerance is also an issue, when it comes to subcultures and the like, very few nations allow for empowered subcultures and minorities. While the US is oftentimes criticized for some of the things that happen here, partially that is because of US citizens being their own worst critics, and rarely bothering to look at other nations and how they operate, where many of them are institutionally and culturally biased in the way they function.
This kind of thing has an influance on things like education. To use Japan as an example when everyone in a school is Japanese it makes it very easy to run the school and the programs. You don't have to worry about making special allowances for differant minorities to have their perspective mentioned in a class (oftentimes meaning you teach the same things three differant ways to be politically correct, or inherantly bias the information), no tensions over things like saying a pledge of alliegence to the country that is educating you, and similar things. The way politics and sociology have influanced American education is a hot topic of debate. Heck, free speech rights take up a lot of our student's energy, due to dress codes and everything, where Japan who doesn't have the same level of policies simply institutes a uniform dress code on students and puts an end to a lot of that nonsense.
I'm not saying that the US should be more oppressive, limit free speech rights, or anything of the sort. Merely that despite other nations claiming they have a lot of freedoms we are in a league of our own. Nations with similar freedoms have rarely seen them put under a trial by fire. As Japan stands now for example something like "Black Rights" would never be an issue because they wouldn't allow for it. That means tensions from things like that don't influance the system and never will unless their policies change.
Oh yes, and of course there are nations on that list that have very tight immigration laws. For all of the arguements about how the US is horrible for tightening our immigration policies, in the end we allow pretty much anyone to come here, and then live in many cases like they never left their home country (which is stupid, but also responsible for a lot of tensions). Take in a few hundred thousand immigrants from third world countries and then hold them to no standards for cultural adaption for a few years and then let's see what some of these countries rank at in a lot of the areas mentioned.
A goodly number of those nations institutionally "whitewash" themselves (replace white with whatever color they happened to be) even if they don't admit it. They might point to laws they have and say "it's not true" but well, look around on the street and is it anything like the US? Nope.
Don't get me wrong here, there are other nations very close to the US. The UK, Canada, and Australia can make some pretty good cases even if most of them are a step or two behind. I can give them credit for ranking higher than the US when it happens because they are at least competing in generally the same league.
However putting a nation like Japan into the running and then saying it ranks 2 places higher than the US? That's not right.
Such comparisons are kind of silly by their nature, but if your going to do it I think there needs to be a divide based on ethics, social policy, immigration, free speech (in a practical sense), and so on. Terming it "free countries" vs. others, or whatever. "Free" in this case meaning to humanity in general, not nessicarly just the people who live there. As some people will point out, if you go to Japan and your not Japanese, even if you immigrate and live there, your still an outsider and for most purposes a second class citizen. There can be exceptions, but that's the way it is.
Without trying to pick on Finland too badly, do they have to deal with ethnic gangs in their schools? Issues of anti-goverment and pro-crime music being blared down the streets and being protected under free speech, or as a racial/cultural thing? Have there been students in their schools making a big deal over things like a Pledge of Alligience, or playing the national anthemn during a sporting event? Has Finland ever had a battle over students wearing shirts with their national flag on it during another country's holiday? (this last one in response to an article here which mentioned students getting in trouble for wearing American Flag apparel in the US during Cinca De Mayo, it being viewed as offensive to the culturally Mexican students).
Don't get me wrong a lot of that stuff is stupid, but they are the growing pains of having a free country. The kinds of issues that you have to resolve when dealing with high principles. The US has to resolve things like that to be both a free country and a melting pot, and they result in tensions and stress on our system. However we always do manage to resolve such issue in the long run, and keep functioning at a very high level. That counts for a lot, and academic studies like this don't allow for the consideration of internal strife relating to high levels of internal freedom, and equality in a multi-ethnic society that is also a cultural melting pot.
This is simply my opinion, and apologies to those who it might offend. I am also not sure how well I am articulating these paticular thoughts.
