Here’s the thing, you could say the same for many small or population dense countries, this is because Japan is population dense but most of the population still live in very concentrated areas, Osaka, Tokyo etc.

One begs to ask the question, Why do Americans need to live so sprawled out? I think the difference is not just one of geography, it’s cultural. It makes sense for Japanese to live in close quarters and there are benefits and negatives for doing so.

Look at France, Germany, Belgium, UK Etc they’re allrelatively population dense countrirs with far more hopeless train networks.