I think all your examples are terrible (bread) or overpriced (Japanese Whiskey). There are also a lot of places that are pretty crap in Japan like restaurants where they clearly don't really care.
Compare to Italy that wherever you go everything seems really high quality. I was in a gas station in the middle of nowhere and I had a really great cappuccino for example.
EDIT: I forgot about this other thing. He also does describe a mechanism for that culture.
That's a bold claim. While I'm sure the average quality in Japan is significantly better than ours, I would put the best pizza places in Jersey, NYC, and CT up against anywhere in the world.
I just don't think Italy _gets_ pizza the way America does.
"Italy" as a whole, I make no claims on.
Thank you for explaining this. I was alawys amazed how the japanese would take the cuisine from other countries and make it better in all aspects than the country that originated it.
OP mentions curry, bread, pizza, etc. Those are things most gaijins complain about when in Japan!
Can't find a proper piece of bread that isn't sweetened, or you find a French chain doing something almost similar but still not on par with breads found in France.
I helped at a pizza shop near Fuji city and while it was not bad, they weren't quite there yet.
I can say that some foods are not bad but saying that they do things inherently better? C'mon now.
Still haven't found a decent thai or indian restaurant in Japan, and probably never will, given the general aversion for strong spices.
You can get very hot spicy katsu curry in most Japanese cities.