First, although interest rates are low in Japan, due to deflation the money in savings accounts now has greater purchasing power than before.

Second, in an earlier post I referred to the article by Robert Barro called "Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?" which discusses social security among other things. Social security, however, is used to explain why savings rates are lower than they would be without them. Thus, if differences in SS were the only cause for the different savings rates between Japan and the US, then Americans actually do save as much as the Japanese but the SS system is doing some of that savings for them which is why we see the difference.

Third, interest rates on savings in Japan were never that high to begin with. At least there's a lower bound at zero.

A. Miyake
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