It's interesting how Japan and Korea have excellent mass public transportation yet are sitting up there in car ownership in Asia. Just shows that the car debate doesn't have to be black or white.
Yup, that was my point. A lot of debates between public transit and cars usually come down to one side thinking the other is pushing for all or nothing. But there can be a middle ground where people can still own cars for leisure, but should not be completely dependent on them for mobility (except for edge cases of course).
The downside is all of the space parking takes up if everyone owns a car. But Japan is a bit more reasonable in that sense compared to the US and its rampant parking minimum policies.