To put it into perspective: Cinemas in Japan are chill, it’s not like American or “Western” cinemas where people shout aloud at hyped scenes or laugh so loud where you can’t even hear what the dialog is or talk amongst themselves causing distractions (or yet, using their phone at max brightness that becomes distracting towards other viewers).
Instead: it’s more on immersing to a movie at your own desire, everyone for the most part is dead silent because they know that they are inside a cinema as courtesy is considered, while I’ve heard that is starting or has already started to decline in the US (& Western nations) since the experience of being in a theater isn’t the same as it used to be.
Stop generalizing the US and the West. Is Japan all the same everywhere? I’m gonna say no. Why should an even bigger country be then? Or another somewhat nebulously defined area that’s bigger still?
What the average Japanese person would think a rowdy crowd is the average American’s idea of enjoying a communal experience. One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.
If you go see a kids movie you’ll have some parents on their phones as well. The bad behavior is creeping in in Japan too. Plus, a lot of the movies arrive half a year or so later than a lot of other countries. And it’s more expensive in my experience. Just for some perspective.
I suspect you look at the term “the West” and you think you’re not part of that. You’re “the East” if anything. If a jihadist screams “death to the West” they include Japan in there. You are a democracy, a developed nation, and you rely on the US for security, and you are not practicing Muslims either. A person in Central Europe could look at “the West” and might include Finland and Sweden in there but maybe not Ukraine or Bulgaria. And what do we do about Russia? West of Japan, east of Europe. Very big and shouldn’t be generalized either. “The West” is an empty vessel people fill with lazy assumptions.