I don’t know if Ms. Tsuchida’s story is true. But I’m completely sure that all kind of people in the world really love make jokes about foreign people, much better as they are more exotic.
Otherwise, Japan is very far to Europe and Asia Minor. And Japanese people use to look inside Japan and they don’t mind about the rest of the world. But they aren’t the only ones to do it. Lot of people of Europe, EEUU or China do the same, looking inside themselves and amassing ignorance about other countries or continents.
A lesson from the story: if you are in a foreign country, carry with you a map.