Stereotypes are shortcuts for us to more easily categorize people. The term "stereotype" has gotten a negative connotation associated with it because often ster

Stereotypes are shortcuts for us to more easily categorize people. The term "stereotype" has gotten a negative connotation associated with it because often stereotypes are used in a discriminatory manner, but the truth is that we all stereotype to some degree to ease our mental load. In this case, the author is identifying behaviors that are more common among people who were raised in Japan than behaviors you might expect from someone raised in the US. My reading was that, while she is ethnically mixed (to whatever extent that phrase is meaningful), she is culturally Japanese through and through.