It’s funny you bring Japanese culture because one the contrary of the article you link, the Japanese are quite obsessed with (visual) perfection. Also everything here come too much plastic wrapping, like every cookie in a 10 cookies box having its own wrapping.

The packing starts to nake sense once you consider the very high air humidity (90-95% saturation) of air in Japan & during the summer the air is both humid and hot. Unless the bag is air tightly resealable or each piece is individually sealed, you need to consume the single bag of food at once as the rest will otherwise quickly go bad in the hot humid air.

Indeed!

I personally find it way more comfortable to be in a sort of ramshackle environment with random bits and bobs. An old country house with idiosyncracies, nothing matches.

A perfect shiny kitchen with all the matching bits and no signs of wear - no thanks!