Yes, it may be common in Japan and the UK. And these countries aren't really known for high quality bus service. Buses in London are good but these are run on a contract system, not similar to the situation that Decamp, Coach USA, etc have. And when you go out to other parts of Britain the quality drops off a lot.

I don't know anything about the other countries you mentioned. It's still a minority of countries. With high labor costs for bus drivers it is extremely difficult if not impossible to make bus service run profitably.