Absurd cultural simplification

I recently was reading a gaming article, and was surprised that it was even being presented as serious.

It also reminded me of a person's comment about my blog from a forum that can be rather hostile:

"the blog seems to engage in the unfortunate stereotyping of westerners wholly ignorant about japan. anyone who reads the economist and has a passing familiarity with books realizes that japan is a modern, westernized economy. sans kimonos and kamakazi."

While I don't really think that's the point of my blog or an accurate portrayal of the blog, I took it that maybe he was right and people know a bit more about Japan than I think. Or maybe he's just overly optimistic. So then I found this article on one of the top mainstream gaming sites:

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3155815

Drawing on the opinions of many in the industry (as well as the author's opinions), this article pretty much depresses the hell out of me. The photos included - American videogame screenshots and Japanese traditional kimono and kabuki theatre, what the hell is this? I'll just take a look at one paragraph on America compared with one for Japan, at least for now.

"Americans are very big on personal freedom, which give a greater sense of individuality."

OK, what? Is this "everyone except Americans hates freedom?" Japanese lack individuality? If Japan is lacking individuality then why is a large portion of America's mind-space taken up with Japanese output (films, videogame consoles, anime, manga, foods, cosplay, almost the entire "retro" scene today is about cartoons made in Japan and videogames made in Japan)?

"Americans all have their own political or religious beliefs, and defend them vigorously."

Some might say this is for the worse.

"Americans love their cars, because it affords us opportunities for independence that public transportation can't afford."

More like because the US is too wide spread for a person to even survive, so they have to buy a car, and then they're told that choosing a car shows their personality and gives them individuality? There's plenty of non-city areas in Japan where people love driving, too, and especially girls like to select cute cars and dress them up to the point where their dashboard looks like an exotic flower greenhouse and their rear window is a collection of giant cute plush animals. Public transportation implies a lack of independence? Then I guess the inhabitants of LA, NYC and so on are somehow more Japanese.

"Americans love commercial competition, because it feeds capitalism and innovation."

Then why does it seem that Japan, with its less competitive style of business, is acting as a more efficient capitalist country than the US? And innovation? Japan is not innovative? I think the author of this article has been sleepwalking, somehow his eyes ignoring every bit of Japanese innovation that surrounds his life.

"America is a country that fought for its independence primarily to grant these kind of freedoms, a nation famous for its frontier mentality. Naturally, Americans love freedom in their games, too."

Well, freedom isn't free, remember that. I don't know. This almost seems like it was written by George W. Bush. Freedom, independence, commercial competition, individuality are all traits exclusive to America. If we were to read this article and create an "opposite" one, it would read like this:

"Japan is a country that never fought for its independence. Because of this, it was never able to win any of the freedoms talked about in this article. Japan lacks an innovative frontier mentality. Japan doesn't like freedom in their games, either."

What?