I have just been watching a TV programme on NHK2 called 車社会日米比較 (Car society : Japan-US comparison). A Western (presumably American) presentator made a long monologue in Japanese explaining basically that Japanese had bad driving manners. He mentioned that :
- When the traffic light turn amber (yellow), American try to stop, while Japanese almost always accelerate.
- In the US (and Europe), pedestrians have priority over cars anywhere (not just on pedestrian crossings), and car drivers usually respect that, while in Japan they care very little and almost crush you. If someone tries to cross the street in a place where there are no pedestrian crossing, for example, Japanese won't stop to let pedestrian pass.
- Japanese bikers (bicycle or motorbikes ?) tend to drive dangerously and not care about pedestrians.

I will also add that bicycle lanes are almost unheard of outside pedestrian crossings (except for a few hundreds meters on Showa-dori in Tokyo), and this time pedestrians have very bad manners. Everyday, I am confonted to pedestrians who monopolize the bicycle lanes on pedestrian crossings, even when there is space enough on the pedestrian zone. I try to always cross on the bikes' lane, and the Japanese facing me wouldn't budge a cm to let me through. I almost have to stop and wait they go around me, or go on the cars' lane. Yesterday, as it was raining and I was riding my bike with an umbrella, the people facing me could see I had difficult steering with one hand, but didn't free the bike's lane even as I fixed them in the eyes meaning "but what are you doing on the bike's lane, and why won't you let me through !".

So, yes, irresponsibilities (see also Cycling in Tokyo and bad manners when it comes to stranger in the street seem the norm in Japan. It seems an obvious enough difference with Western countries to let a foreigner lecture the Japanese on the subject on NHK. Funny in country so praised for its well-behaved and ultra-polite people. Maybe that is there way of letting the pressure down.