I don't believe that it simply boils down to "advanced freedom." Although this is a very fraught topic, most sociologists would say the East Asian countries you mentioned generally engage in more "collectivist" modes of decision-making. (To what extent the individuals themselves vs. their cultures are "collectivist" is hotly debated, but I won't wade into that here). To me this seems directly related to the problem at hand: individuals in Japan or Taiwan generally had the freedom to make bad choices, but instead chose not to; individuals in the United States or the UK had the same freedoms but as a whole made different choices.