This kind of cultural sensitivity or keen awareness of social mores is absolutely critical when courting an audience. Cultural isolationists in Japan would rail at such localization as a sell-out, but this criticism is essentially anachronistic evoking only romantic sentiment for the past. In this regard, nothing has been more success than Pokemon in helping American kids learn something about Japanese society, even without knowing it. That's what internationalization is all about. Pokemon have opened the gate to the outside, and the Japanese must take their success to heart.
Localization ultimately leads to the question about an understanding of different cultures.
Japan's failure to understand the U.S. led to a disaster more than half a century ago. In the post-Cold War era, which coincides with the birth of the Internet, the Japanese must understand Americans in their terms, not in terms of the Japanese version of America. Pokemon have paved the way in this direction.