Japan/Korea are not as liberal as US/western europe though. And danemark/norway/sweden/finland or the baltic countries in general are more socialist that enven France, really.
99% of their culture is not based on the cultural vestiges as we articulate then 'in law'.
They technically have some institutions which mirror 'Western Liberal Democracy' but they are not remotely like Western nations in that sense.
Taiwan, Singapore are also technically a lot like 'Western Liberal Democracies' but we can see they absolutely are not, right there in their COVID responses.
They are indeed noteworthily 'different'.