They, really are not "a curious bunch of people". I'm calling it a weird implication because it's reductionist and kind of fascistic to try to write off huge groups of people as being inherently different.

Cultures can be wildly different, and 2 different huge groups of people can have different cultures, and as a consequence be inherently different to one another, so there's that...

For all the talk of individualism, for example, it's pretty easy to blindly tell a random American from a random French with great statistical success just for their opinions on things. And those two cultures aren't even as different as each is with Japanese culture...

Whats weird is you implying I think liberal democracy has had it's day and that the state should be all powerful and led by a strong-man based on a summation of my decade of experience interacting with people from Japan noting the individual differences and aggregate similarities are something I find, and I quote, "curious".