In Japan, high school kids wear school uniforms. That’s not particularly unusual – school kids in the UK also wear uniforms. But the rules for uniformity among Japanese kids don’t end there.
If a Japanese high-schooler wants to ride a bike to school it can only be a certain type of generic bike, with a carrier on the handlebars, a kickstand and fenders front and back. No other type of bike is allowed. Helmets are optional, and rare.
Japanese school kids are also expected to have several pairs of shoes for use at school, including a pair of soft-soled shoes to wear inside the school, running shoes for gym, and street shoes.
Making kids conform to standards of dress and behaviour seems a good idea. Among other things it helps reduce the number of superficial distinctions between kids, which can only help reduce teenage angst. It also eliminates the distractions of fashion and the pressure to keep up with the cool kids.
On the whole, conformity appears to rate pretty high as a social value in Japan. The same goes for gestures of respect. Bowing, for example. At Nagoya airport I saw airline staff arriving at the departure gate for my flight. As each employee reached the check-in desk they turned and bowed to the room of waiting passengers before starting their work.
At the end of a school swim team practice I watched the student swimmers 
walk to the lifeguard stations on either side of the pool and bow to the lifeguards before heading to the change rooms. On highways in Japan, the stylized figure of a person bowing is used on signs to apologize for interruptions caused by roadwork.
I can’t think of any formalized, universal gestures of respect like these in my culture – at least not current examples. Our society values individuality over conformity, which is viewed as negative, and personal versus collective rights and responsibilities.
In Japan preserving social order is an overriding cultural value. This may mean Japan is not culturally suited to producing visionary business disruptors like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, but then the Japanese are certainly not opposed to adopting and refining useful technologies. As for the benefits of prizing social order, theft in Japan is practically unknown and Japan is arguably the safest country in the world.