Stroke order is very important to Japanese culture, in a society where the process matters just as much as the end result. Some calligraphists take stroke order very seriously, and will probably explode if they see someone writing a Kanji with incorrect stroke order.
One might phrase this "Stroke order is assigned by convention in Japanese; deviating from the conventional order is incorrect, much laik hau Einglish speling iz nat ap four eendevizyuelle tyoise." ("What's the matter? You can sound it out. Pfft, Americans, such rigid traditionalists. It makes sense in the context of their religious views and conservative political tendencies, though." [+])
This avoids unfortunate Man Japanese People They're So Craaaaazy overtones. (FWIW: stroke order is prescriptionist not descriptionist but AFAIK prescriptionism has a virtually hegemonic mindshare among relevant authorities.)
n.b. Otherwise this project and post is freaking excellent.
[+] You can actually read Japanese-language takes on American culture which are exactly as bad as this Orientialism-in-reverse.
One might phrase this "Stroke order is assigned by convention in Japanese; deviating from the conventional order is incorrect, much laik hau Einglish speling iz nat ap four eendevizyuelle tyoise." ("What's the matter? You can sound it out. Pfft, Americans, such rigid traditionalists. It makes sense in the context of their religious views and conservative political tendencies, though." [+])
This avoids unfortunate Man Japanese People They're So Craaaaazy overtones. (FWIW: stroke order is prescriptionist not descriptionist but AFAIK prescriptionism has a virtually hegemonic mindshare among relevant authorities.)
n.b. Otherwise this project and post is freaking excellent.
[+] You can actually read Japanese-language takes on American culture which are exactly as bad as this Orientialism-in-reverse.