> TLDR Singapore and Japan have low crime rates that likely have nothing to do with severe punishments

Can you elaborate ? Singapore has 4 ethnicities, 4 religions, and 4 languages living together as a developed nation in a small city which could be considered a marvel in any other part of the world. Also, apart from the US, and perhaps UAE, Canada, is the only nation with a policy allowing a sizable skilled immigrant population. With such a diverse set of folks, one could argue that the only common denominator is the cane, a language everyone understands.

Singapore also has 1. ~70% of residents living in public housing.

2. Onerous taxes on automobiles, leading to extremely high public transit usage.

3. Is a city with a controlled national boarde.

I would be very curious to see what would happen if you applied those three factors to any other major city in the world. But for some reason people nearly always only talk about the executions and spankings...