I think it's more to do with the fact that the official ethos is all about staunch sacrifice in the face of continuous suffering and inflexible rules. People end up trying to get some relief any way they can, looking for a bit of joy in every corner of society where they won't feel judged harshly.
As the rare Japanese on here who speaks English, the amount of theory-crafting from English-speakers about how and why Japanese do this or that is borderline hilarious. Just shows how different our cultures are. Most people don't realize that the way they view the world is through their own ethnocentric lens.
This is prevalent even among foreigners in Japan, who think they understand the Japanese better than the Japanese do, despite living here for 20 years and barely being able to hold a conversation in Japanese for 2 minutes.
And your first comment is shitting on those trying to understand instead of applying your own analysis? Sorry for showing an interest I guess. Hopefully the irony of you own analysis of "English-speakers" isn't lost on you.
