No, but when I tried to look at some of the links in the ranked sites and
couldn't get them to load because my web-browser wasn't geared up to read
Japanese <BG>, it was then and there that I came to the inevitable inference
that it was written by a mag FOR the Japanese, and the dive sites are those
most frequently dived by the Japanese, which explained quite a few of the
"odd" ratings of "world best".

In that sense, it really no different from the Rodale ratings of "Top 10
this", "Top 100 that", based on self-selected samples of subscriber votes,
which are dominated by (clueless) Florida and other US divers.  That explained
how Molasses Reef was rated Numero Uno site in the USA.  :-)

No, but at least one of the editors of that mag did, and I infer that's one
location quite accessible to the Japanese, just as Thailand, the Indo-Pacific
Ocean, and Hawaii.

You probably KNOW who that "expert diver" (who works for the mag) is.  :-)
Otherwise, your bet is not as secure as it might seem:

#> HOW WE CONDUCT EVALUATIONS
#>
#> Our team of expert divers, who collectively have logged over 27,000 dives

Every time I read some ad that said their personnel had a "combined experience"
100 years or some other number, it's a pretty good bet it was based on 1 or 2
really old ones who inflated their experience to add to 95 years say, and a few
trainees of no experience at all.  :-)  

In the case of CYBER DIVERS, it wasn't the rating of readers, but a "team of
expert divers".  All it takes is ONE experienced DM who has done 26900 dives
and 3 or 4 other mag writers who had a "combined" experience of 100 dives to
make the team to have a "combined" experience of 27,000 dives.   In other
words, that statement means virtually NOTHING insofar as the credibility of
the ratings go.   And it showed too!  ;-)

#> Final scores represent the combined ratings of the team on a scale of 0-10.

The Top 10 dive locations can be pretty much related to the Top 10 locations
favored by the Japanese divers and editors of the rag.  :=)

Now it should be easy for everyone to explain!  One of the "expert divers"
dived the Canaries, and it compared well against some of his other3 dives
elsewhere.  :-)

In short, those World's Top 10 ratings are at best (a) good for a laugh, but
more likely (b) worthless crap based on an editor-selected biased small group
designated as "expert divers".

Let the Buyer Beware -- as they say.

-- Bob.

P.S.  Killing some time at the Newark airport on a return trip home.