Without pretending to know all about Japanese culture and tradition, I think there's not much doubt that suicide is, traditionally, not as frowned upon as it is in a lot of Western cultures. (Samurai seem to have been particularly
big fans.
)
We tend to see suicide as cowardice, (at least I do,) but as MMM says, the Japanese consider it somehow more honorable.
I also don't see how America plays into it all. As previously mentioned, American culture along with most other Western cultures does not really approve of suicide. After all, samurai were busy gutting themselves hundreds of years before modern-day America was even thought of.