Misunderstood or misrepresented in Japan culture?

Japanese business culture is wrongly perceived as the biggest obstacle to starting business in Japan for many foreign companies thinking of entering the Japanese market.
Many foreign companies never do start business in Japan (or only enter the Japanese market through a distributor) simply because of the misconception, fueled by those infamous myths of doing business in Japan, that dealing with Japanese business culture is somehow too risky. Fortunately, Japanese business culture is not an impenetrable barrier to successful business in Japan, as proven by the very substantial Japanese market share enjoyed by Yahoo!, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and many others.
Inevitably Japanese business culture is different to that of the US or Europe, but the differences do not make it any more risky to do business in Japan than elsewhere in the world. In fact, certain aspects of Japan's business culture, especially the very stable long-term relationships resulting from the conservative Japanese sense of loyalty to trusted partners, can be very beneficial for those foreign companies that understand how to swim with the cultural tide as opposed to vainly struggling against it.
So just what is Japanese business culture and how is it different?

1. Japanese are doing it for you the customer.
2. In the US and Europe, personal service has become something that people must pay for with tips - in Japan there is no tipping, personal service is literally 'part of the service'.

Many foreigners confuse the service aspect of Japanese business culture noted above as being simply a part of Japanese social culture, i.e. people are just being polite. Agreed Japanese society is very polite but all of the people noted above were doing their job when you encountered them - a big part of their job is keeping you happy and in Japan that entails good customer service. Unfortunately many foreign company executives doing business in Japan for the first time, do not recognize the differences noted above - primarily because when traveling they are 'off duty' - they consider their first encounter with Japanese business culture to be when they arrive at a Japanese customer or distributor's office for their first business meeting.