I'm inclined to agree. Danish culture — to which I am native, although I no longer live there — is similar to Japanese, in many ways. I talk a lot with my relatives over there, and we have very different views, but a "discussion" doesn't mean there must be "winners" and "losers," it's merely a sharing of perspectives and information.

My cousin (Danish) is a sociologist who lived in the US for 12 years and now is back in Denmark. His observation was that US culture has an inherently antagonistic slant... almost all points of view are approached from an "us vs. them" perspective. He pointed to an interesting (and surprisingly simple) example: the way sports in the US (specifically football, basketball and baseball) generally require overtime or extra innings because there "must" be a winner... a draw is not an "acceptable" outcome. Not always, but mostly. A draw is a perfectly honorable outcome in most of the rest of the world.