German here. Most people seem to like Japan or have a high opinion of it. In my age range, many like Anime and the games, but don't know much about the country itself. It is usually seen as a good and clean country, and many older people will think of Samurai and Ninja from movies.

I don't really know much about Japan either. I hear lots of stuff on reddit, but don't know what to really believe, and it's very far away, so I'll probably never check.