Yes, there are some Japanese designers who are inspired by traditional simplicity, but this exists in the west too. I’d venture to say, as a hunch, that Japanese see simplicity often as ‘the way things are’ and thus more regularly applicable to traditional design. i.e. in a sense the default design that surrounds them. Of course, there is great modern Japanese simple design — Muji being one of course — but I think this is more a reflection of the way things could be rather than the way things are. Walk around Kyoto and you will see this kind of stunning simplicity but it’s hard to ignore the reality that downtown Kyoto is one of the world’s ugliest cities: its former beauty was bulldozed to make way for the monstrosity that exists today — and don’t get me started on Kyoto Station! Although to be fair to Kenya Hara he does try to explain this contradiction but I’m not sure that he’s really correct — the beauty of the bento is the same as the beauty of Ryoanji — it’s a traditional form that people find comfort in as the world changes around them.