Comment by Terr_

> pictures of the food

It may partly a legal thing: Japanese law is big on not-misleading consumers. Depictions are considered close to formal promises of what you'll actually receive, or at least actual ingredients that went into it.

This is opposed to, say... an artistic free-expression of a shared aspirational dream of what the product's platonic ideal, and/or a bunch of things which are meant to evoke the feelings they hope you have in your subjective heart after your joyous nonrefundable purchase.

I'm not sure how well it could be adopted and adapted for American law, but I wish someone'd try.