space That Japanese respect thing is everywhere.
It is. An old family friend of my mothers in England, who died in his 90's last year was from Singapore and was tortured by the Imperial Army during WWII. He still had nightmares about it until his dying day sadly.
He once said it wasn't just the torture, it was the fact they bowed to him after they had finished. My mother never told him I was living in Japan, it would have angered and upset him. He never allowed anything made by the Japanese in his house.