Every country has its peculiarities, but for me Japanese always had a few more of them. So far my major impression I got about them stemmed from the rather entertaining appearance of Japanese tourist groups and Western produced movies and their interpretation of this Asian country.
Historically Japan was a very isolated country. On the one hand the geographic location in middle of the ocean without any direct neighbors limited the options for exchange. On the other hand only the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868 marked the political opening to the rest of the world.
Still today Japan with its 128 million inhabitants, the 10th biggest country by population, plays a lonely role on the stage of the world. Two rather astonishing figures bring this to the point: In Japan the ethnic mix is made up by 98.5 % Japanese and only 1.5 % other nationalities (mainly Chinese and Korean). In Austria the ratio is 91.0 to 9.0 % letting aside the number of granted citizenships. Looking at the total number of people speaking Japanese not even a million have chosen Japanese as their second language. German is spoken by roughly 105 million as their mother tongue and up to 80 million as a second language.
Travelling in Japan now for three weeks for sure helped to get a better understanding. Still sometimes the little details just make me smile, other habits render me puzzled. Toilet shoes, high-tech toilets, the size of an average car and Maid Cafes fall into the first category. Among the second I would count the contrast between the awareness for little details in design and apparently missing eye for the big picture.