I heard some media tidbit somewhere recently claiming that you can drop a wallet full of money on a Tokyo street and expect to go to the lost-and-found a couple of days later and claim your wallet ~and~ your money.
OTOH, there is the Rape of Nanking and other unbelieveable WWII atrocities to consider.
But then, back on the first hand, there is such an exquisit elegance and style to the culture.
But then, back on that other hand, there is the -- supposedly from real life -- story in Memoir of a Geisha about the "customer" who wanted only virgins and preserved a bit of cloth with their blood in vials in a cabinet he had just for this purpose.
The mind reels....
"The mind reels...."
I know exactly how you feel. An attempt was made to reconcile the two extremes of the Japanese culture. A book called "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" by Ruth Benedict talks about the two extremes and why they exist and how to understand this seeming paradox: extreme beauty and gentleness on the one hand, extreme crualty and absolutism on the other. She did all her interviews with Japanese POWs (the ones who would talk to her) because she couldn't do it in Japan. Very good read. Not modern PC garbage either.