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I've noticed the pro-Japanese and pro-Asian episodes of Perry, too. It does feel somewhat imposed on the series rather than flowing naturally from it, as the show generally steered clear of anything political or controversial,--actually one of its charms, IMO--and aside from the greater numbers of Asian, black and Hispanic characters, by no means huge, usually in secondary roles, but still, after 1960, does show that someone was paying attention to what was going on in the country even if it was no more than the occasional police officer, witness, soldier, sailor, someone who just happens to be there. In the first few seasons it was practically a lily white show.

As to Japan, I've wondered about that as maybe something Raymond Burr asked for. He had appeared in the mega-hit Godzilla, American version, but still, which got him wide exposure, maybe bumped him up a bit as to status in the film industry (he was highly successful in radio but not a name player). Yet I believe that Burr's scenes for Godzilla were actually filmed in Hollywood, that he didn't go to Japan when working in the U.S. version, though maybe later on he did; or maybe he just liked some of the Japanese people he got to know when working on the picture. One more thing about Asia and Perry: Erle Stanley Gardner apparently was a successful attorney for Chinese immigrants in California long before he created Perry Mason, and that he helped many of them with immigration issues. That the name Gene Wang appears in the closing credits I've always felt speaks to this.

As to the Blushing Pearls, I barely remember it. Benson Fong was in it, right?. He appeared in a few Perry Masons. The one that I remember best, because it was so unusual, is The Case Of The Caretaker's Cat,--the one in which he literally burns the house down. Mr. Fong was inscrutable throughout in a fine episode that as I recall had a strong back story that it took a fair amount of time to unravel.