nail art, what's the deal?

As mentioned before I'm currently living in Japan and Japanese women are well known for their love of fashion , labels , accessories, cuteness and beauty/cosmetics. Something I've noticed here in Japan is women here are really into nail art. Okay, so I come from South Africa where nail art basically just involves getting a basic french manicure ; which is considered "classy" (even my own mother utters such a sentiment) but as for me I've always associated nail art with women who don't work and there's nothing I detest more then I woman who doesn't work - it doesn't matter what kind of work you doing , as long as you working, you cool with me (this includes housewives-well kind off...)I remember a while ago back in South Africa seeing a women who was struggling to type because of her false french manicured hands , so that's basically the impression I had of nail art and women who are into nail art. However I started thinking back of Lauryn Hill and she had a line in that track "everything is everything" about getting nails done by Koreans. Judging from my last trip to Korea , Korean women are also into nail art and they good at doing it to but then again according to the Korean lady who was putting my weave in (yeah I had one , I said it) "Korean women are good with their hands, we can sew , do all types of hair and do nails" (from that statement alone I could get into a whole rant about the 'division of labour') And then when I was in New York , I couldn't help but notice all the African American and Hispanic women with very well decorated nails. So is the nail art trend something that only women of colour are into? I've yet to encounter a white woman with her nails done/nails did, every Caucasian women I know has basic colour or clear nail polish.I just find it funny that Asian women are into nail art since it something that I (and surely I'm not alone in this thinking) clearly associate with black and Hispanic women because from what I know and see here in Asia whiteness is the height of beauty and whatever is associated with white beauty and femininity is something that women here gladly follow and nail art is something I just don't see white girls into... I got to find a book or something to explain this to me because I just don't understand it...To see what I'm talking about this link clearly shows you how popular nail art is here in Japan