It associates with zero == false == no. I suspect this is why Sony swapped the meanings.
The meaning of an X symbol isn’t universal even in Europe, but it’s often used to mark a point of interest or active selection (as in ticking boxes, or “X marks the spot”).
X is commonly used for crossing things out, and marking things wrong
Was that the case when the PlayStation initially released?
the on-off-merged-in-one-pushbutton 0 with a 1 at 12 oclock (in the circle of the 0) came later, I assume out of Europe (Asia?), because suddenly all at once everything had them, mid 90s I think. That was also the beginning of globalization (meaning, identical products sold everywhere) and also "on/off are advisories, not switches", which was probably all just coincidental timing.
(I don't think the 0/1 toggle computer power switch labelling somehow had more influence over Europeans or Asians than it did over Americans, but I dunno, engineers are pretty universal)
I was really struggling to figure out what symbol you were talking about and I couldn't come up with anything. Looked it up and __you mean the power_ icon! I never considered it was made up of the 1 and 0 used for on/off states.
I hate that the switch does this.
But it means sense if everyone in Japan is used to that behaviour because of the swapping of X and O on Playstation.
Controllers typically used sets of A-B(-C) X-Y(-Z) face buttons, A/B intuitively meaning ok/back however they were laid out, usually in straight or angled rows assigned left-to-right (e.g. Sega) or right-to-left (e.g. Nintendo). The angled layouts are the modern Xbox and Nintendo layouts (which Nintendo used since forever and Xbox I guess inherited from their Windows CE involvement with Sega).
But Sony came up with the symbols instead, so Japanese devs followed the maru/batsu metaphor with circle/X, whereas early western games used X/triangle until they switched to X/circle, and those became official regional layouts until the PS5 switched Japan to X/circle.
The labels exist to help the game teach its control scheme, not to make players memorise the layout itself. But of course, games without consistent game mechanics don't have any control scheme to teach.
There are some games I've played on the Switch that use B=confirm, I think usually so that button layout is the same across consoles.