The headline actually undersells this, because the last time Japan had 1% rates, it was in the context of a rate cutting cycle from 6% down to 0.5% in the early 1990s. So only people who were around in 1989/90 or before have experienced a tightening cycle in Japan, notwithstanding brief hikes up to 0.75% in the sunup to the Great Financial Crisis.

Interest rates play an especially important role in countries that depend upon either trade surpluses or capital flows surpluses. In the case of Japan, the yen is very weak right now compared to 1995 (about 160 yen/USD vs 80 back then). The Bank of Japan tried to intervene in the currency markets - spending more than $70b - the last couple months but without much success. Algorithmic management of currencies is quite hard when the currency in question is a major one like the yen, with a lot of market depth.
One of the reasons why people watch Japan so much - aside from being a major developed nation - is that it has time and again been the pioneer in economic and demographic trends seen around the world.
They hit zero interest rates in 1999. They ran quantitative easing in 2001. They experimented with negative rates in 2016. And then there’s the demographic disaster that is Japan, which actually stabilized at a better rate than many peers which have now plunged into far more catastrophic birthrate collapse.
So Japan is often the laboratory for economic experimentation or harbinger of how demographics and economics intersect.
All that being said, with an inflation rate running at ~2%, Japan’s economy is still running hot with a 1% short-term interest rate target. This is still (irresponsibly?) loose monetary policy.