Asian Obsession with Japanese Culture

What I have come to notice recently after living in Asia for a couple of months is the obsession of all things Japanese in all manners of society. From anime to food to language, it is evident around every corner in Hong Kong. This is not exclusive to Hong Kong, Taiwan has long been regarded (at least under my impression) of close to mimicking Japanese culture. A quick search on a restaurant review website (similar to Tripadvisor), the top restaurants in a busy suburb produced a result of more than half of which are Japanese cuisine. On the streets of Hong Kong, every corner you look, there’s a Japanese restaurant. Even restaurants that have no remote connection to Japanese cuisine will have Japanese characters just for the hell of it (and this applies to food bought in stores).  As if like some sort of marketing ploy, products with Japanese characters sell for higher prices. Of course food is just one aspect, other things from mass media to even language has some influence from Japan. So I ask all you readers out there, why this obsession to Japanese culture? What’s the biggest thing that is causing this cultural hegemony on Asia and beyond? 

An example of cultural domination...