Japanese publication PingMag interviews Bungie's environmental artist Ken Taya on the cultural influences on design jobs here and in Japan:

Well in terms of semantics the actual word designer and the roles associated with this position differ. Here comes an over generalisation: I feel that the Japanese game developers really focus on the feel of the game above everything else - and the US developers, the look.

A lot of interesting observations on the industry from both sides; check out the entire interview. Thanks Louis Wu for the heads-up.