I remember brining up a theory on reddit about how rice agriculture had a profound influence on Japanese culture, and this idiot chimes in with "Japanese like to cooperate because they had AGRICULTURE?" Basically, his entire concept of agriculture was a point in a tech tree in a strategy game. (Hence no differentiation between agriculture in the wheat fields of Western Europe vs. rice paddies in Japan.)

In some ways, modern life does leave us out of touch with the complexities of the world and nature.

How would Japan be different if they had developed wheat agriculture instead?

From vague memory of an article read years ago:

Rice was a lot more labor intensive in that it required more time in the field per food-for-one-person than wheat. It also doesn't store as well nor have bumper crops. So, if you have a bad year, it's hard to have a buffer with which to get by. As a result, the vast majority of the population had to get over themselves, cooperate and comply with spending most of their lives taking care of the rice or else people would starve. Troublemakers who did not cooperate were putting everyone else in clear, near-term risk and were dealt with harshly.

Malcolm Gladwell thinks that they wouldn't study as hard in school because wheat grows itself.