Culture and language are very much intertwined and to separate them would be impossible and too simplistic.

This is not just in Japanese but even in English. A person's accent is related to where they grew up, their parents, level of education and socio-economic factors.

There are certain words that cannot be translated effectively from one language to another.

The one I find the most interesting is gambaru or gambate-kudasai

Friends/family encouraging each other to give it their all in their regular, everyday endeavours.

If you translate this to english as "do your best" or "work hard" or "try your utmost" and as an English speaker you said this to your friend you would sound really condescending and lame. NO-BODY says this to their friends before they head out to their part-time job, or school..

I would say something like, "have a good day" or "don't work too hard" or "don't get into too much mischief"..

Interesting topic and worthy of discussion. Just a comment though about the word "mentality" in the subject of this thread. It sounds like you are looking to find fault and is problematic.. perhaps the word psyche is better.. it is important to remember that words have different effects on different people.