Well I know that there is certainly a difference in the meanings of colors compared to America (which I suppose would be extremely related to Europe).
I'm quite interested in this myself to be honest.
I know that in Tea Ceremonies guys will usually have a "cool" handkerchief (like purple or green) and women will usually have a "warm" colored one (orange or red). I don't know the meaning of this though.
I wonder how much of the color stuff was imported through China and how much was imported from the west as far as Japan is concerned. I know that in China yellow was like the best color (according to my fashion class that I took to graduate college
).
I think it's interesting to look at how cultures as well as humans (physiologically/physcologically) perceive colors.
I think this is something that marketers are extremely interested in, that's for sure! You might check out some marketing in Japan information if you can find it.