Did they have salarymen before the West brought it to them?

"Western" is a messy and relative concept. I can see how you could make an argument that Japan is a "Western" nation in some sense. They are technically a First World country, which is usually used as shorthand for Western countries.

It's a lot easier to make the argument for the Philippines, but you get what I am saying probably.

Japan is kind of part of the Western world, you know. The Western world is not about the English language.