I'll start. Fahrenheit is the superior temperature system for weather reporting. We should use metric for literally everything else, even Celsius for cooking, but I'll be dead in the cold ground before I abandon a system in which you actually get to experience both 0 degrees and 100 degrees. Freezing being 32 instead of 0 is literally the only downside, and it's not a hard number to remember. I'm prepared to die on this hill in the comments.
Eh, I don't know much about Japan but the first stereotypes that come to mind are discipline, a sense of honour and duty people have to their work and the fact that it's a culture that is weird to a westerner despite being a first world nation. It's not surprising that those things appeal to a certain kind of personality, shall I say more categorising than empathising, the kind of personality many nerds have.
Also, is the whole "lack of personal connections" thing fair? That just sounds like a harmful stereotype.
Not to be argumentative, but how? Immediately calling it a harmful stereotype and dismissing it is to me more of a thought-terminating cliche. That's an easy out instead of making further observation. To me it's basic logic: A Westerner who doesn't know Japanese isn't going to go to Japan and have close-knit connections as easily with a culture known for its polite but distant mannerisms.
I've lived in Korea for years; while the country has its great qualities, foreigners -- particularly Westerners -- overestimate the bonds they forge. Japanese and to an extent Korean culture isn't about direct confrontation and typically I've observed that if a negative comment can be framed in a more positive manner, it will be attempted. If a woman doesn't like a beard on a Western man, she may repeatedly make seemingly-nonchalant comments about, "Oh, so much hair." I myself have bad RBF and always get comments about how little I smile while they backpedal how little they like it when I ask what they mean.
Part of Korean culture also is its hospitality. I can't find this, but there were conflict models I once saw mapped for various countries and one Korea's stages during interpersonal dynamics was "Tell the other person what you think they want to hear". This echoes in what friends have told me about their Korean co-workers complimenting how good their Korean is. The thing is, their Korean sucks. But they don't always grasp the difference between someone being sincere and someone simply mollifying them.
When you throw in the fact that many long-term travelers in East Asia inevitably come from places of social and financial privilege, you've got a perfect recipe for -- I don't know how to label it succinctly -- a Karen personality. Someone who wants the world to be one giant customer service desk for them.