Interesting topic.

the way I see it, there are two big differences when it comes to cultural adoption.

1. a culture is adopted because people take interest in it.

2. a culture is adopted because of marketing.

in sweden where I live, we breath american culture as natural as oxygen. we never really asked ourself why. it's just the way it is. it's not because we think america is cool. this is an act of marketing. we consume american products all the time, so it just seem natural. I don't want to insult someone, but in my point of view, the US are eating up other cultures by planting mcdonald's and other stuff in them.

there were of course a time though, when american culture were considered cool and new here in sweden.

my own fixation about Japanese culture on the other hand, comes from pure geekness. I ate sushi before we had sushi bars here in sweden.

now, is the japanese adoption of american culture something that comes out of marketing or pure interest?