I have visited Japan twice, each time for about 17 days, and have traveled to remote and beautiful places - not only the major cities. To most of the places I drove, only used a JR pass for one week. I found the people are helpful, even when I am fumbling at a rail station ticketing machine, always I got help without even asking. When I tried to locate the car hire place in Takayama, the police woman locked the police station and came with me to the place because she couldn;t speak English. The car rental guys at everyplace I rented a van stayed with me for hours programming the Navigator, which is in Japanese again.
Once I was trying to find a place, my wife went to the shops nearby, one shopkeeper who could speak English, temporarily closed his shop and came with us to show the location. I found the people generally very helpful.
A university girl whom I met in a supermarket in Kyoto came in the next day to our hotel early morning and took us everywhere in Kyoto. She spoke good English. When we gave her a tip in appreciation, she refused money. I still have her contacts.
Another girl who helped us in Nagoya, she took us around did all the bag forwarding etc to Hiroshima, filling the forms etc, came to SriLanka during last Christmas 2018 and stayed with us and travelled around for 10 days.
Last year I visited China, spent 12 days and it was just the opposite. No one was willing to help. I will never set foot in China again, but will visit Japan again next year.
Unike the guy who posted this I do not live in Japan and this is what I felt.