Pure politeness is as well present in French, but in Japan it's an aversion to openly and directly confront others.
You don't have it in Osaka as much as in Tokyo or Kyoto (that's why I'd think it's not the language), and in Tokyo people are overly stressed by their work, commuting, and overpopulation in general, so they need to compensate it by an impressive spectrum of skills for passive agessivity (which is not really better).
Disclaimer of competing interests: I'm a French guy in Japan.
I stopped finding it "interesting and different" when I realized that it led to a LOT of miscommunications even among Japaneses and could end up ruin lives because of the unwillingness to point out even minor things.
Happy to hear this is mostly a Tokyo thing (though it does extend to my coutryside in the Chiba peninsula)
I work in the tech industry. As a senior engineer, I've had to mediate MULTIPLE misunderstandings over the years (and also hearing random complaints) about French tech workers being perceived by native English speakers, Indians, Asians as condescending, offensive, or rude.
Having worked with them closely and spent personal time trying to understand them, I know it's not in their hearts. Humans are humans. Rude ones, polite ones, friendly ones, impersonal ones. On a culture-wide scale we all average out. But the language is a problem. I almost feel bad for them.
And so I've literally had to tell people "<so and so> isn't rude, or condescending to you. They're just French."
I don't think it's about their opinions, it's just a language you have to be more polite in. Doesn't feel any different from the South or UK to me.