One of the biggest gap between Japan and Western countries can be seen in the tolerance toward homosexuals. 69% of Japanese are uncomfortable about having gay neighbours, followed by Austria with 43% (that's a 26% gap !). Even the US with all the recent debate about gay marriage only comes 4th with only 34% (so not all people who voted "Bush" were anti-gay ). The Dutch and Scandinavians are the most tolerant (11 to 18%).
I could be wrong, but it looks like the figures for the US came from a study of only roughly 8000 people...hardly an in depth study!