My wife and I are both American born caucasian, but my wife is a translator focused upon japanese and french. From my own experiences, I found most urban, younger Japanese to just accept a visitor to their country very easily. Many rural or older Japanese were a bit more insular and formal. Still I find all the Japanese I encountered to warm up faster to a visitor than many Europeans I had visited in years prior.

One thing I did notice though is many japanese did not know really what to talk about with me even though my japanese is conversational level. I did harken back eventually to my upbringing in Arkansas and Texas, so I just pulled my cowboy hat out of storage and threw it on much as if I was back home. This is something I do in no other country, since I try to fit into the locality. But it was a real door opener for conversations and easy of friendly relations with many japanese I dealt with daily. I got some odd looks but they were always good natured and friendly.