I have six HTs:
1 Yaesu FT-60R
1 Icom ID-31A (for 70cm DStar)
2 Wouxun UV3A, one 2/440 and one 2/220
2 Baofeng UV5RA, one 2/440 and one 2/220
The FT-60R was my first HT in my modern ham career. It's an excellent radio and very easy to program manually. As would be expected, accessories are pricey. Compared to my other radios, it's a bit heavy. I bought a quick charger but it never worked. I never bothered to get the problem remedied because after I bought a Wouxun, I don't use the FT-60R that much.
The ID-31A is mainly for DStar use. Transmit audio sounds a bit muffled on analog. This is the 70cm only radio. (They make a ID-51A which is dual band.) I wouldn't recommend this radio unless you are looking to get into DStar on 70cm.
The Baofengs are tiny, inexpensive, and come with quick charger. I rarely use the 2/220 radio, but I actually tote around the 2/440 radio quite a bit because it's so small and recharges fast. I paid $37 for it and it comes with a quick charger. The Baofeng receive audio has a little bit of noise in it, and the receiver selectivity is on the low side so if you live in an RF congested area, the squelch is probably going to open more than you'll want. For the money you can't beat them.
The Wouxuns are my work-horse radios. I use them more than the other HTs. The transmit and receive audio are excellent and they weigh half as much as the FT-60R, they have good receiver selectivity, cost about $50 less than the FT-60R, good battery life, and come with a quick charger which I use everyday. I love my Wouxuns.
You say you don't want a Chinese radio, but I have news for you, the FT-60R is made in China.
(The Icom 31A is made in Japan.)
If I had to choose one radio out of all my HTs, I would choose the Wouxun UV3A 2/440. The only drawback is that Wouxuns and Baofengs are more difficult to program manually than the "Japanese" radios, but you can get free software to program them. I use RtSystems for all my radios, including my mobiles and TS-2000, which makes it easy to manage all the frequencies, so that's not a concern for me.
73