They idealize Japan through fetishized objects. If you showed the picture of that same coffee shop in Philippines or some south east asian country, nobody in the West would care.
But attaching the Japan label suddenly makes it more appealing as it invokes many distorted (and misinformed) aspects of Japan.
It's the same annoying vibe that Koreans get when they come across a foreigner who is into Kpop. Most Koreans do not care for Kpop as do most Japanese do not care for Anime.
Yet these exports create a parasocial relationship with a foreign country that when broken turn them into passive aggressive bigots.
The more you covet the harsher the rejection. Japanese and Korean society simply has no place for outsiders. Having a Japanese passport doesn't make you Japanese as it will not change your ancestral history, having your gender changed on your drivers license doesn't change the biological history and so on.
But attaching the Japan label suddenly makes it more appealing as it invokes many distorted (and misinformed) aspects of Japan.
It's the same annoying vibe that Koreans get when they come across a foreigner who is into Kpop. Most Koreans do not care for Kpop as do most Japanese do not care for Anime.
Yet these exports create a parasocial relationship with a foreign country that when broken turn them into passive aggressive bigots.
The more you covet the harsher the rejection. Japanese and Korean society simply has no place for outsiders. Having a Japanese passport doesn't make you Japanese as it will not change your ancestral history, having your gender changed on your drivers license doesn't change the biological history and so on.