Victor just sent in this article on the emergence of Japan as the next cultural superpower:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33261-2003Dec26.html
It was quite an eye opener for me since initially I thought of Japan as devoid of local creativity and imitating Western culture. Now that I think about it, it has gone through a radical change during the 5 years I was there, albeit in a subtle manner, and signs of Japanese culture can be found in far away places.
Looking around, quite a few things come to mind. Trey Parker, the creator of one of my favorite shows, South Park, also lived in Japan for a while and Japanese influences can often be seen on the show. As mentioned in the article, a lot of things in the Matrix series were derived from Japanese culture. Even Pakistan hasn’t been spared. Just take a look at my company’s name (“ii”nix) and logo 
.