I wonder if the reason that a lot of Japanese food is super salty or flavorful is because they had and have such a big smoking culture. I noticed that a chef I worked with over salted a lot too and he was a smoker. I guess tobacco does dull the flavors
idk but I do know that coffee wasn't really a popular drink in Japan so Nestle made coffee flavored candy and conditioned kids to like coffee flavor and when they grew up they wanted to drink coffee