Japan is Japan, most of their history can be summarised as isolationism/NIH.

Software developers are also not seen as "real" engineers there. They're just typing words into a computer, right?

That might explain why their software never took off to the same extent that the US's did, despite having been leaders in the hardware space.

You can of course "just program" the same way you can "just build" a car out of plywood and some electric motors, however the presence of an engineering mindset (and tools/resources) is what separates a fire hazard from a Ferrari.