The validity problem of this research method is so obvious that I am surprised that it should appear in Science.
Researchers say there are many small police booths in Japan. But the funny thing is that China learned police model from Japan. So there are also many small police booths in China. For this reason, researchers are investigating China instead of Japan in the hope that China will appear at the bottom.
In addition, the Chinese jumped directly from writing letters to sending text messages, then Wechat (an app like Line), skipping e-mail. It's like Chinese people jumping from using bank cards to mobile payments, skipping credit cards. So Chinese people use e-mail and credit cards only occasionally. Why do researchers selectively ignore Chinese customs and culture?
Maybe you can also do a research that defines "people have to take off his/her shoes when he/she enter a room" as "not free" and then excludes Japan for "cultural reasons", so that China will become the "least free" country. Does that sound great?
Shame on you.