But is Japan perceived as being behind culturally? Many would look to something like housing costs in Tokyo, lack of prevalence of firearms, or universal healthcare as progressive values that Japan has that are "ahead" of at least America in (housing costs probably more progressive than the Anglosphere at least and probably the west in general).

I have a hard time reconciling the general nature of your comments w.r.t Japan isn't westernized with the specifics as well. If westernization is mainly about philosophical traditions (secularism, individualism, etc.) I think Japan is certainly less westernized in some ways (think like many attributes that skew in different directions), but if you look at other things, maybe it's not? You could examine attributes such as the tight alliances with the west to how anime characters are represented.

I'm still wondering if what we're talking about here is just a different expression of being "westernized" versus a meaningful difference.

Personally I actually have a view that's moreso that the Anglosphere (US, Canada, Australia, UK, New Zealand) + Japan and perhaps to a lesser extent South Korea are more "westernized" together than say the Anglosphere and Germany and France.