Japan comes back to top 10 in U.N. standard of living survey

Japan ranked seventh in the 2006 standard of living survey conducted by the U.N. Development Program, recovering from 11th last year when it had fallen out of the top 10 for the first time since the survey began, according to the survey released Thursday. Japan's highest mark was set in the 1999 survey, in which it came to fourth.

The survey, began in 1990, studied 177 countries and regions, measuring average life expectancy, education, literacy, the gross domestic product per capita and other factors, to calculate the Human Development Index. Norway topped the list for the sixth consecutive year. Iceland came second, followed by Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Japan, the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands.