Japanese culture still seems to prize intelligence, whereas places like the US require you to hide it some of the time. It's almost like they're an entire nation of nerds.
From a recent article titled "Why Apple isn't Japanese"
"One notorious case in point involves Shuji Nakamura, the brilliant scientist who invented a revolutionary energy-saving blue-diode light source only to find himself mired in years of litigation as he struggled to extract royalty payments from the company that had profited from his invention. Nakamura ultimately abandoned Japan for California. Fasol recalls asking scientists at the University of Tokyo if they considered his departure a blow. " 'No, not at all,' they told me. 'It might be good to have someone more ordinary'." "
Read up on traditional Japanese saying: "The Nail that Sticks Up will be hammered down." and conformity of Japanese culture.
http://www.snorko.org/cyberwrite/eng103/students/dianec.html