I'm sure many Japanese salarymen would agree with your description. I used to work in a small familial company in Osaka where you didn't need an excuse to "exercise honesty", but from I gather it was the exception more than the rule.
So far of all the places I worked at it was probably the one I enjoyed the most in terms of atmosphere and relation with coworkers, alas the work was not particularly interesting. I still pay my former coworkers a visit from time to time.
I’ve travelled to many places around Japan, never once has anyone told me that Osaka wasn’t in Japan.
There are lots of stereotypes about people coming from various cities/regions in Japan (Tokyo: cold, Kyoto: indecipherable, Osaka: uneducated/rude, Hokkaido: weird, Okinawa: lazy, etc.), but Osaka not in Japan? Never once.
So far of all the places I worked at it was probably the one I enjoyed the most in terms of atmosphere and relation with coworkers, alas the work was not particularly interesting. I still pay my former coworkers a visit from time to time.