Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
theres also the fact that the Pacific War meant the US had much more focus on Japan than other parts of Asia (India and China were British concerns). Then post 1945 you had the defacto colonisation of Okinawa and the Americanisation of Japanese culture which eventually developed into the modern Otaku kuru culture. As well as the entry of Martial Arts into Hollywood via Bruce Lee, Ninja and Samurai.It is striking that Japan especially generates much more interest than any other non-Western culture. Partly it's the strength of their cultural industry. Hong Kong cinema was popular too, whereas eg Thai or Vietnamese culture don't generate the same interest. Why Japan is seen as cool, and India with its own massive cultural industry is not seen as cool, is a complicated question of psychology I think*.
That Otaku influence is now expanding out to Korea (Music and drama) and due to its shear size Chinese drama. There are some great Thai and Malaysian dramas out there though but whether they and Bollywood ever reach the international popularity of Japanese anime or Korean Drama is anyones guess