japan's tech industry (as i understand it from reading about it) was sitting on their hands because they were the best at that time. then samsung and lg came along and leapfrogged passed them and now Japan display (a combination of a few companies) are trying to play catch up.
In Korea the airpods are a fashion trend. it does not matter what kind of phone you have, but it apparently matters if you have airpods or not. before airpods on public transportation i would see many samsung users with apple earpods. this is very funny to me.