You'll get backstabbed, walked on, lied to, treated badly, cheated on etc etc JUST as much in Japan as you will in any other country, I'm speaking from my experience living in Japan by the way, not some half formed idea in my mind.
The difference is in Japan you'll get taken advantage of with a smile and good service, while in western countries it'll be yelling and a headache.
Westerners get fucked in Japan and then it takes them like 3 hours to realize it happened lol.
I swear to you the people are the same, the assholes are equal in number, the good people are too, the frugal businessmen also, all of it, seriously.
You're setting yourself up for a massive disappointment if you go to Japan expecting otherwise.
edit: as long as you're only dealing with the facade, which is a lot heavier in Japan than in any western country I've visited, then yes it does seem like Japan is a far more civil place.
see:
http://www.japanforum.com/forum/japa...tml#post860478 