Having been to Japan recently, I do find the country to be nice, but nothing extraordinary that would make it among the favorite foreign countries by many (as showed by many polls). I'm just curious, what makes so many people around the world want to learn the Japanese language and culture, and go live there?
I hope I don't sound like a racist who is saying that Japan is terrible. I actually find Japanese people to be fascinating when I was there. They are extremely polite, respectful, and hardworking. But I doubt that people like Japan so much because of its people, since many have never been there.
What I want to know is what makes Japan standout so much? To me it has nothing special that would make the country particularly attractive. What I'm going to write below may anger some Japanese or fans, but I really don't mean to offend anyone. And I welcome different views and opinions that challenges mine

1)History: Japan doesn't have a long history, and as a student who studied extensively on East Asian history, its history is much less fascinating than Roman or Egyptian history (just personal opinion), and Japanese civilization itself is not very glorious before the Meiji Era. So I assume people like Japan not for its history?
2)Culture:Japanese culture has borrowed many foreign elements. From architecture to cuisine to religion to language...I'm not saying that Japan doesn't have its own culture, in fact it has developed its unique culture very different from Continental East Asia. But many of its culture still has foreign roots. So I'm very puzzled when people say that they love Japanese culture but don't like Korean or Chinese cultures...which shows that they actually don't know much about Japanese culture.
3)living in Japan: It is for sure a good thing to live in a country where people are so polite, respectful, and live in harmony. But the country is so prone to natural disaster T_T , and every place is soooo tiny! So I don't understand why so many outsiders want to go live in Japan. (And of course I find Japanese to be very admirable and brave to stay in their country despite all the constraints)
4)Manga:this is probably a major reason why people like Japan right? I don't watch manga show but can someone tell me what's so special about it that make it so popular to the extent that the country itself becomes so much loved.
5)negative things about Japan: personally I don't find many particularities of Japan that could explain its popularity. But I do find many not so positive things about Japan, but are somehow neglected by everyone lol. I'M BY ALL MEANS NOT trying to make people hate Japan but I just find it to be unfair that country like the U.S. is being hated for doing things much less serious that what Japan did during WW2.
As a political science and history grad student, I find the fact that Japan is loved around the world despite its hideous war crimes and still refuses to apologize or even acknowledge these things to be beyond belief. While the German government is still sending out checks to victim families to redeem itself. The exact opposite thing take place in Japan. I guess none of the Japanese lover is related to any of the victim under Japanese Empire, but my own great grandfather in the Canadian Army was captured in HongKong when he was stationed there. Although he was fortunate enough for having survived the slave camp, many of his pals did not. I learned about many of his accounts through my grandfather and they absolutely terrified me.
I'm not going to describe these things since it's not my purpose. I don't hate Japan at all but I'm just very curious about the reasons why people like this country so much.

Please tell me what do you like about the country, if I have the chance of visiting the country again, I'll try to appreciate these things as well!

Cheers!