Why Japan?

Yesterday I hung out with one of my American friends. He then said to me, " I am going to go to Japan from March as a exchange student." I was very surprised at it. He is studying Japanese at KSU and he had been up for going to Japan to learn Japanese. He finally realized his wish. I hope he will enjoy Japan and improve his Japanese. I have some American friends who are studying Japanese. Why is Japan very attractive to them? It is much smaller than the United States and Japanese is not global language. One of my friends told me that Japan had an interesting culture and a long history. Since I was born in Japan, I do not feel like that. However, I am sure that studying foreign language is very very very exciting! Anyway, I want to say, "Good luck!"