Any link to an article that would illustrate that? I’ve been in Taiwan a bunch of times, live in Japan and on the contrary Japan, while having a good image there, is not a single-outed as it is in the West. The cultural gap between Taiwan and Japan is infinitely smaller than between Japan and more remote places. Taiwan was even part of Japan at some point, so while only the most elderly lived it, I really doubt cultural explanations are needed as you claim they are.