I agree, there is a lot of knee-jerk reactions to subtle situations which is not always warranted. Then again, there simply isn't time in the world to look at all the angles on any particular topic so sometimes you just have to fall back on rules of thumb.

In this case I feel unable to say if the Japanese decision is right. But I feel confident in disliking that guy's argument for it :)

(and ditto on feeling like an idiot. Tricky stuff this)