Japanese Traditional Culture

Let's see...
Hidebound?  Check.
Moribund?  Check.
Irrelevant? Check.
Usurious?  Check.
Credulous?  Check.
Sexist?  Check.
Feudal?  Check.
Bureaucratic?  Check.
Corrupt?  Check

Here's the link to the brutal statistics in the Freakonomics article that shows the results have long been improbable.  I knew enough about Japanese society a decade ago to eschew my love of the sport.

As someone who's done a bit of three different Japanese martial arts, and known plenty of Japanese and 'Westerners' who have practiced martial arts, or other Japanese arts, the list above applies to them all.  Whatever Japanese culture once was, its arts are dead, except perhaps in design and cuisine.