Japan, China, Korea: All the Same?

I got a question for the next 「ボビーと１ビール」from YouTube user "jetdaisuke" who's a pretty popular electronics/product reviewer on J-YouTube.

His question is this:

"よく欧米のテレビや映画などで
日本と中国と韓国が、混同されています。
In Western television and movies, you often see a confusion of the cultures of Japan, China, and Korea.

服とかインテリアとか音楽とかね
みんな、どれくらい違いが分かるのかな？"
Like, mixing up the clothing, or interior decorations, or the music.
How much do Westerners actually know about the differences between these cultures?

I'm trying to frame my response to this, but I'm not sure what to touch on, so I'd like your help.
Can you think of any specific instances of confusion I might be able to reference?

I was wondering also if I ought to talk about how it's not just a one way street. Most Japanese people think a white face equals English.

If you have any links I might be able to use, let me know. I was trying to find an article I remember reading recently, about how people of other races really do all look alike (it was a scientific study about having trouble with facial recognition when dealing with a racial group that you didn't grow up seeing). Does anyone know where that is?

And in the comments, please tell me what you think about the question in general:
If someone asked you, how would you answer?

Torture, Murder, and The Legal System

I really like テレビドラマ。

I've spent way too much of my life watching shows like The Shield, The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Justified, Boardwalk Empire, and Dexter.

You might notice a common thread: they're all about cops and criminals.

Recently, I've been rewatching Dexter because my wife has gotten into it. I'm currently caught all the way up through season 5. Yuri's just finished season 3. Yuri's conversational English is great, but there's an awful lot of Dexter that has to be explained. I'm sure it would be the same if I was watching this kind of show in Japanese: most people just don't come across vocab related to homicide investigations and crime during their day-to-day.

So today, I'll share with you a helpful list of vocabulary to help get you through a crime drama, a detective novel, and the occasional story on the nightly news. In making the list, I was surprised at how many of these words I can actually remember not being able to come up with in conversation... I'll mark those ones with * so you can wonder why the hell I'd need to know those words so badly.

Here we go:

Criminal

犯人　（はんにん）；犯罪者（はんざいしゃ）

An incident of murder

殺人事件（さつじんじけん）

A crime scene

　　　　

（事件の）現場　（（じけんの）げんば）

Murderer

　　　　　　　

殺人　（さつじん）

Serial Killer

　　　　　　

連続殺人犯　（れんぞくさつじんはん）

Serial Killings

連続殺人　（れんぞくさつじん）

*Victim

被害者　（ひがいしゃ）

*Evidence/Proof

　

証拠　（しょうこ）

Witness

　　　　　　　　

目撃者　（もくげきしゃ）

Motive

　　　　　　　　　

動機　（どうき）

Alibi

　　　　　　　　

アリバイ

Informant

　　

通報者　（つうほうしゃ）

A rat

　　

密告者　（みっこくしゃ）

Investigate

　

取り調べる　（とりしらべる）

*Interrogate/Cross-Examine

　　　

尋問する　（じんもんする）

****Torture

　　

拷問　　（ごうもん）

To torture someone

人を拷問にかける　（ひとをごうもんにかける）

*Trial

　　　　

裁判　　（さいばん）

Prosecutor

　　　　　

検察官；検事　　（けんさつかん；けんじ）

Defense (Attorney)

　

被告側(弁護士)　（ひこくがわ（べんごし））

Jury

陪審　　　（ばいしん）

**Guilty Verdict

有罪判決　　　（ゆうざいはんけつ）

Innocent

　

無罪；潔白　　（むざい；けっぱく）

Illegal Drugs

　　　　　　　　

禁止薬物；麻薬　　（きんしやくぶつ；まやく）

Stimulants

覚せい剤　（かくせいざい）