> So why Candy Japan rather than another one?

That is a very good question. I don't know if there are comparison review sites, or how reliable they would be.

> I dread the prospect of opening it up and getting a box of sea weed

It sounds like you're not the type of adventurous person who'd care for this in the first place? Your mind went, in a leap of fear, from "tastes of sea weed" to "box of sea weed", which are wildly different concepts.

> different traditions in making candy for a different pallet will change the flavor profile

I'm a german and i've tasted, well, most german candies. And a bunch of american stuff when i visited (lol candy corn). The cane sugar stuff is wildly different even to my palate.