Here's one more example that I didn't want to put in the original post:

Perception: "Japan is so futuristic! Look at all the smart cards!"

Reality: This is something I actually know a bit about so I'll go into depth here. E-money in Japan is closer to an electronic substitute for hard currency. When it comes to FinTech in the rest of the industrialized world, the focus is on removing cash out of the equation, with technologies like Visa PayWave, MasterCard PayPass, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, etc. Furthermore, such technologies are based off the global standard of NFC-A/B. Japanese IC cards are galapagos tech. They're based off FeLiCa/NFC-F which is totally incompatible with the global standard. What's worse, IC cards are mostly non-intercompatible, based off proprietary tech. Nanaco, WAON, iD, Rakuten Edy, etc. And you can't load IC cards, not even Pasmo/Suica, with anything but cash. No credit cards, no debit cards, just cash. The only exceptions are if you have a JR-linked View Visa (automatic Pasmo/Suica reloads), an Osaka PiTaPa Visa (automatic PiTaPa reloads), or an AEON branded credit card (automatic WAON reloads). There is Visa Touch and whatnot, but that's only useful within Japan. Neither MUFG nor Mizuho offer NFC-A/B credit cards, for instance.