Western culture had a weird influence long before. Their children animation series were western looking characters. I don't know how much of it was a marketing strategy or a form of praise for westerners. I also noticed the trend for English lines (Ai Robu Iou) in anime theme songs.
Osamu Tezuka (credited for inventing anime/manga as a genre) was indeed influenced by Disney character animation. And anime itself is a loanword from the French word for animation. There's nothing weird about one culture influencing another.
Japanese culture does seem to think that English 'sounds cool,' but how many US companies choose Japanese names for their products for the hip factor, and how many people get kanji tattoos despite barely knowing what they mean? The phenomenon definitely goes both ways, sometimes recursively: Nintendo of Japan reskinned Doki Doki Panic as Super Mario Bros. 2 for the US market, then resold it domestically as "Super Mario USA."
I ... really can't think of any brand using japanese names. I'm curious, enlighten me.
It's true DDP was rebranded as SMB2 but I don't think it reflects any kind of japan culture love, IMO it was just a cheap strategy to release a Mario sequel at low cost.
> Their children animation series were western looking characters.
It's because Osamu Tezuka, widely considered the father of modern anime and manga, was heavily inspired by Disney's animation style. He drew his characters with "Mickey Mouse"-style eyes, which evolved into the over-sized "anime eyes" we see today.
