Many of the problems he describes aren't exclusively Japanese, but a few, like the hierarchical view and casual racism are far more particular to the Japanese.

Many of the problems he describes aren't exclusively Japanese, but a few, like the hierarchical view and casual racism are far more particular to the Japanese. It's not hard to understand where it comes from, however - Japan is something of a cultural isolate, and resisted European and others' overtures well into the 19th century - at which point they underwent explosive industrialisation and social upheaval. Then there was the whole mess of their wars of expansion in early 20c., culminating in WWII. Following that, American occupation and control, which ended many decades ago. What I'm getting at is that there's been a huge amount of technical and societal change in Japan over the last 150 years - but not as much social change. You can change how people make their meals, spend their days, travel to work, but you can't shake notions like bushido or sakoku overnight.