Well, as far as culture is concerned, just as an American, I can think of three things that Japan contributed that weren't available to the West before WW2
Now technology wise, they did dominate for a while as they had a highly technically skilled population that could manufacture electronics and so on. The rest of Asia is catching up, and I think is probably already passing Japan by. South Korea as far as technology is definately an equal if not superior in some areas.
As far as pop culture, Japan compares favorably only because I'm not a fan of much on American TV or Movies. I hate reality TV, movies right now all seem to be cut from one of a shrinking number of pre-written storylines. I'm tired of special-effects fests, movies that exist only to "shock" middle america, and animated movies featuring animals with famous voices. Our pop-culture seemed best in 1950-1970 or thereabouts. Now, we're out of ideas.