My understanding is that it's a matter of intent. In English, you'd never say "The car went to work" because cars can't do things. People may make the car do things, but the person was the intent behind the action.

Japanese expands this concept so that "this thing made me laugh" is weird since things largely have no intent. Perhaps "this thing is amusing" since that holds no intent or perhaps "the fates amuse me (with this thing)".

I expect that Shinto beliefs played a very large role in the differences in anthropomorphism between Japanese and romance influenced languages, but I can't find a great link to back it up.

My understanding is that it's a matter of intent. In English, you'd never say "The car went to work" because cars can't do things. People may make the car do things, but the person was the intent behind the action.

Japanese expands this concept so that "this thing made me laugh" is weird since things largely have no intent. Perhaps "this thing is amusing" since that holds no intent or perhaps "the fates amuse me (with this thing)".