During the 70s and early 80s the general western view of Japan was exactly the same: they made cheap copies of European and American stuff.

It’s like living in BSG: happened before, will happen again.

You are believing a notorious bunch of liars.

Much more probably: they developed a cyberweapon and tested it in the wild. The victim caught them so they invented a cyberpunk history to increase the interest of potential buyers for that weapon.