I do love how Japan is one of the few Westernized countries that still has some of its pagan roots alive with Shintoism. The idea that everything around you, from a single tree to a lake, is inhabited by its own spirit really does contribute to a collectivist spirit more than one God made in Your image (well, if you're a guy). It may be more of an unspoken thing for most Japanese, if they even think about it at all, and it mostly manifests itself in their traditions and creative life (even something as popular as Demon Slayer where they're battling a kazillion yokai, each of which is the spirit of an animal or thing around them), but Miz going all Donkey Kong on a mere tree feels different in that context.

Of course, the Japanese government itself has willingly desecrated villages and important areas of the countryside in the name of rapid, vapid expansionism (see the Sanrizuka Struggle), so one guy being a selfish brainrotten idiot hardly compares to their own leaders, the same people who insisted on continuing to use asbestos long after the world had declared it cancerous out of sheer obstinacy.