Americans love shooters, just adore them. Be they first or third-person, we Yanks are more than happy to grab a digital firearm and start spraying lead all around. Need proof? Check out which games are consistently ranked in the top three on Xbox Live. The order usually goes a little something like Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Grand Theft Auto IV.

So America, land of the Second Amendment, likes to shoot things, but over in Japan, they aren’t really fans. Only 51 percent of gamers surveyed in Japan said they enjoyed shooters and only 74.8 percent claimed to have ever played a shooter. Think about that for a minute, over a quarter of Japan’s gaming population has never had the joy of pointing an onscreen gun at a foe and killing him until he’s dead. That’s tragic. I mean, I don’t like survival horror games, but I’ve at least played a couple Silent Hill and Resident Evil titles to prove that yes, these games do make me feel deeply uncomfortable.

So, why don’t Japanese gamers enjoy this genre? Responses run the gamut from, "I’m not interested," to, "I don’t know what the point of these games is." Ouch, that’s a little harsh. I mean, I know shooters don’t really have the best reputations for strong storylines, but still, doesn’t the purpose of the game where you have a gun and a lot of other people with guns are shooting at you become pretty self-evident fairly quickly?

So while we Westerners continue to blast away at aliens, terrorists, and anyone or anything else that threatens our masculinity, Japanese gamers will continue to indulge in androgynous heroes with big swords and buckles on their clothing in places buckles were never intended to go. Different cultures my friends, different cultures...