I've visited lots of countries , privately and through previous work.
Italy is my favourite for the food, history, culture and colour ... but Japan is my close second - for it's mind-boggling tradition, culture and history - and it's safety.
If you're after safety and difference, beauty and culture, I'd suggest Japan.
As examples, I walked through back alleys at 2am without any concerns at all, and stayed opposite a highrise construction site where at knock-off, tradesmen simply left their toolboxes in openview until the 'morn. In a bar, buy a bottle of whisky and have 1 or 5 drinks from it - they put your name on it until you returned the next day,week or month. It was there for you to claim and drink! Unbelieveable !!!
We westerners hold the impression that Japan is over-run with people. It's not!
The cities, whuch mainly lie on the coast, are very populated, very busy and rushed. Most of the country is forest and mountains. I travelled on the bullet train from Hakata (a sourthern port) to Kobe and most of the time (at high speed) I was passing pine forests and mountains/BIG hills.
Japan for mine is safe, clean, historic, traditional, polite and quite enchanting.
I'd recommend it to you, on the proviso that you understand it is not cheap.
