1. You can walk in the crowd at the shibuya crossing with your wallet sticking out of your back pocket filled with cash and not worry about getting pick pocketed. 2. Everyone carries around a portable ash tray with them when they smoke and never throw cigarette butts on the ground. 3. No one throws any trash on the ground. Garbage cans are hard to find too and everyone just carries their trash with them.
1) Low income inequality / strong welfare system 2) This is actually a counter example. Nothing more socially offensive than second hand smoke. 3) Trash cans disappeared from the streets of Tokyo shortly after the sarin gas subway attack by Aum Shinrikyo in 1995, and they've never reappeared.
If it were cleaned more regularly people wouldn't litter so much. (Not a defence of people who litter, and it's the one thing I hate most about living here.)
One time last year I had to stay overnight in Japan to reach a connecting flight. The airport allowed people to sleep on the benches (very comfortable with no arm rests), and a police man stands there all night and watches over everyone to keep them and their belongings safe.
To top it all off, there is a sign addressed to people sleeping there that at 3 AM the airport personnel need to polish the floors and they apologize for the noise!
(This was at the old Haneda airport near Tokyo)
I was told this is a relic of the sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subway.