Unlike such places as those, Japan produces a lot of high-quality technology, mainly in the line of the entertainment industry; everyone loves entertainment, and I would have to agree with the notion that Japanese video games tend to be better. Why so many people fixate on this one country, I can't say I know, but popularity is this odd business of pressing the right social buttons at the right times so random things like Japan crop up. In an alternate universe we could all be fixated on Sweden or wherever.
I think the matter with anime and manga in particular is the way they go into themes for older audiences as well, and with the mentality over the rest of the world that cartoons are for kids, Japan is pretty much the only country to produce this sort of entertainment. Personally, I much prefer animation to live-action; isn't the idea of entertainment to enjoy some sort of fantasy we wouldn't normally live out? Seeing real things isn't very often conductive of that.
Just trying to shed some light onto weeaboism for you... Personally, my main interest in Japan is of the country's history so I can't think of any more to say. I'd still go for Japanese as one of my first choices of languages to learn, but it's no pressing matter, it's just the only foreign tongue that I find is, as they say, relevant to my interests.
