the japanese are a good society. Their view on honor can be... nasty. If you impinge upon a Samurais honor you get to enjoy a duel.
This is a culture that for a very long time could not be visited without causing some wierd sense of shame for the japanese. The two times they were attacked by the mongols, they (the japanese) would try to fight with honor and would have their leaders challenge to mongol leaders to a duel... a company of mongols would promply hit him with arrows and wait for the next officer to come running down the hill to challenge.