Japan vs South Korea: Democracy

Japan

in 2025

South Korea

in 2025

Japan rank

1st

South Korea rank

1st

Democracy over time

Japan
South Korea

How they compare

Japan currently reports 3 against 3 in South Korea, a difference of 0.

The two have swapped places 6 times across 237 shared years of data; in 1789 it was South Korea ahead.

Japan ranks 1st and South Korea ranks 1st of 176 countries.

Individual pages

Democracy in Japan
Democracy in South Korea
Full country ranking

About this data

Indicator: Democracy
Source: V-Dem (2026) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 176 places, 29,594 data points, 1789–2025
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

Identifies the political regime of a country by distinguishing between closed autocracies, electoral autocracies, electoral democracies, and liberal democracies.