The way I see it, Japan is an Asian country, and fascination with Asian countries has a long history[0]. The other thing is that Japan has a vivid pop culture s

The way I see it, Japan is an Asian country, and fascination with Asian countries has a long history[0]. The other thing is that Japan has a vivid pop culture since WW2 and really ramped up its soft power effort, of which a significant aspect is the export of the Japanese culture in general [1]. The phenomenon OP is talking about is excellently captured in the "Thing, Japan" meme as well [2]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Japan [2] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thing-japan https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thing-japan