This is easy - Some cultures are inferior to other cultures. Sadly, the “American” culture has been in decline since 1960 or so. Also, with unfettered immigration, we have become a country (as another poster pointed out) without a unified purpose. Everyone has his own ideals
“Japanese people,” he told me, “are like passengers on a cruise ship. They know that they are stuck with the same people around them for the foreseeable future, so they are polite, and behave in ways that don’t make enemies, and keep everything on a friendly and gracious basis.”
From a Christian perspective, in its limited scope the things which the writer describes are entirely Biblical, and in which the first command regarding treatment of each other is reverence for parents, elders, and thus authority in general, and other then basic laws. The 1960’s revolution which continues, was a rebellion against such things. While it did support values such as racial equality, that was necessary to sanction homosexuality, and its overall ethos has and is costing America plenty in souls, lives, and money. (http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/RevealingStatistics.html)
Back to Japan, it is not a Christian nation, but like some other peoples, it has retained some values supposedly Christian nations have much lost, an issue which Romans 2 addresses, “For circumcision [being under the Covenant and knowing the scriptures] verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. {26} Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? {27} And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? “ (Romans 2:25-27)
Every person and nation is given a common innate sense of morality, and to the degree that they keep this and pass it on the better they are, and the family is critical in this, more so than the government.
But without a codified moral standard then one can deviate from it, (though men will try to find a way around anything) or it will be incomplete. There are aspects of character such as personal discipline and reverence of authority and of culture which can also make great soldiers fighting in a bad cause. Even the Mafia today is suffering from a lack of “character.” What we increasing lack in America today in personal character is set in much in contrast to previous a era, and its ideals. And to positive values which it principally owes to the Bible. (http://www.astorehouseofknowledge.info/Education_in_the_United_States; http://www.conservapedia.com/Moral_decline)
Certainly there were major blights regarding this, but the article on Japan also does not address how a nation which in times past also (i assume) practiced the same high regard for elders, and personal possessions, etc., could produce the kind of atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking, etc. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=11&ved=0CHUQtwIwCg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D4920138942953644691&ei=T2F_Tfn2O8X3gAfKxPCTCA&usg=AFQjCNHHBi3e2Z08J4claIGQy3okeYrxuw&sig2=RPRMrdpuSyqjRu9_ryee-w
As an aside, an little interesting read is “Window on Eurasia: MacArthur’s Policies in Post-1945 Japan a Model for Russia, Pavlova Says: http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/01/window-on-eurasia-macarthurs-policies.html