This is obviously very cras and opinionated, but there are 2 key points buried in there - the Japanese are distinguished by their willingness to appropriate goo

This is obviously very cras and opinionated, but there are 2 key points buried in there - the Japanese are distinguished by their willingness to appropriate good things from around the world. This is a huge difference, I find, compared to European countries, particularly France. They also, as he says, care a lot about what they do, and are devoted to food. This has it's downsides, eg try buying a cheap ugly apple in Tokyo, you will fail, the producer threw it away long before it could have ever reached the store. I think Japan also gets a bit of a leg up over other places because if you have lived elsewhere all your life then you will find food in Japan incredibly novel and fascinating in provenance, packaging, preparation and presentation. When I first arrived I found even just the convenience stores mind boggling in the variety of stuff I had never seen before. The actual food halls are a whole other level from there. It is difficult to have the same experience if you have lived in the West and go to London/Rome/Paris for the first time.