Not sure if this has been posted on BPL previously, but it's a very nice report about a trip Glen took to Japan courtesy of Evernew & Hiker's Depot.

http://gossamergear.com/wp/tribal/photo-gallery/gg-trips/japan-2010

I was talking to a heavy-weight backpacker from Japan and he said that going light just isn't "the Japanese way." Not sure if that is true or not (I suppose you could say it's not the American way, either.) Anyway, he would likely change his ways if it seemed to be the Japanese way, that there were articles and reports written in Japanese with figures he could cite.

Hi Tom,

You can read Miguel's post also.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=36921&skip_to_post=321451#321451

This time, fortunately we had a chance to hike with Glen.
We spent very interesting time. How light his pack is!

Hi Piper,

There are various people in Japan.
Some people go heavy, some people go light.

Of course, I go to light :-)

Piper, Yohei was one of the very light ones. I have a thing or two to learn from his methods. I really liked the simplicity and clean, uncluttered packing style he had.

Before modern times Japanese tended to travel very lightly. Long distance walking was part of their culture, especially because they had few big animals for transportation and didn't use many wheeled vehicles until the end of the Edo period. The heavy backpacking style of today was introduced by the British back in the 1800's. Most stores still stock mostly traditional weight gear, but all the big hiking magazines are now actively and frequently publishing articles about UL techniques. A lot of the people who joined Glen for his hike here, including Yohei, are at the forefront of the UL movement and have become quite famous nationally through the magazines.