The Western-Eastern cultural fusion in recent Japanese pop music was not a new issue at all. Western music was introduced as military music and then predominantly was used as an educational tool. Unfortunately, since then, the Japanese have not used Western music to enrich Japanese traditional culture. Instead, they began doubting their tradition by considering that Japanese music is primitive. Japanese education diffused this idea throughout Japan.
More people learn the piano and violin than the koto and shamisen.
Such a cultural metamorphosis is clearly has affected Japanese popular music. Some may lament traditional music's present condition and would wonder why the Japanese can so easily ignore their own culture and turn to foreign cultures. Also, imitating other cultures is absolutely not a new thing for the Japanese. Japanese people have always imitated foreign cultures and modified them to fit their own culture. The only change is that today's foreign cultures are Western cultures rather than Japan's mother Asian cultures.