First culture shock when I visited Japan in 2015 was when I pulled out my phone to take a snapshot of the airport express train arriving. Every Japanese person in my line of sight either darted away or covered their faces with their hands. That day I learned it was taboo to take snapshots like this, even if your subject is some inanimate object like a train if there are people around.

Seems this is Japan specific, as I have not encountered this in Korea or Hong Kong.

Really? I can't say I have ever noticed this in Japan and I've been there a number of times. And pre-digital it was Japanese who were notorious for snapping pictures of anything and everything.

In Germany it's also frowned upon, but not taken this seriously. In any case people won't shove a smartphone in your face while arguing with you.

We have fairly strict photography laws so people don't get their likeness shared without consent.

In the US, live theater usually has very strict rules about any sort of recording. I've seen ushers on Broadway rushing to block people from even taking a picture of the empty stage before a show or shooting a selfie at curtain call. Live popular music is more of a mixed bag.

I think the biggest difference is just that American culture encourages ignoring rules to an extent where Japanese culture expressly forbids that.

When I was young, concerts here in the States almost _always_ had a strict no photography/recording policy. Is this no longer common?

No longer common since the ubiquity of mobile phones. You usually still can't bring any cameras with interchangeable lenses (e.g. a DSLR), or a high quality audio recorder°, but IME the only shows that do anything to prevent all recording are stand-up comedy acts.

° jam bands still tend to allow these

I tape (audio) fairly openly at a lot of shows, most venues (or at least those who work for the venues) don't appear to care these days as long as it's not taking up space/getting in the way.

And a lot of artists are also pretty tolerant at this point of it. For example, The guy who runs the excellent (unofficial) live archive for NIN, got an invite to meet the band rather than a cease & desist.

(Edited for wording).

The bans became untenable in all countries when phones with cameras became ubiquitous.

Not in places where people actually are civic minded and respect rules, e.g., japan, corea…

Cultures are different. In my country it's common courtesy to mind your own business and don't tell other people what to do. Personal freedom versus conformity. If you're the kind of person who gets annoyed easily at others instead of ignoring them as we are taught you won't last 5 minutes.

The Supreme Court of the U.S. has maintained an absolute ban on photography down to this very day.

Some venues would have you put your phone in a bag, lock it, and give it to you. It will be unlocked on your way out.

I saw chapelle in NYC years back (the before pandemic times), they really did this. You can hang onto your phone, its just locked in a neoprene type bag.. On the way out they have a device to open it (kind of like security tags on clothes..).

The reasoning is just based on super strict copyright rules though.