Japanese hand plane has to be one of the most satisfying tools to use...if you're into wood working, really worth trying one.
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-You pull them instead of pushing them, because Japanese carpenters used to work on the floor using their own body to brace the work piece
-All wood construction because steel has always been a rare material in a volcanic island without much iron ore veins like Japan
-Most Japanese native woods (pawlonia, cedar) are on the soft side compared to European and American (and from the XIXth century onwards, tropical such as ebony, mahogany) woods. Which is also why they manage to make such thing shavings without tears.
As others have said, I like the all wooden construction too.
I like western style hand planes too.
I’ve only ever used a western-style push planet, but intuitively I think I’d have more control with one designed for pulling.
Modern metal-bodied planes do work similarly, in that both let you set a blade slightly beyond a flat sole, allowing you to remove high surfaces on wood. That's about where the similarities end.
Japanese blades are laminated steel, and quality blades are hand-made by smiths. Smiths use proprietary techniques to make blades that can maintain edges for longer than machine-forged steels. Chipbreakers are made of laminated steel as well and can keep the primary blade under tons of tension, allowing it to remain stable even when cutting against the grain. Wooden bodies allow skilled users to adjust the blade depth within microns without sacrificing stability. Wooden bodies are easily adjusted to fit the needs of the user.
To use an analogy: using a western hand plane is a lot like trying to race a Camry rather than a Porsche. It's not that the Camry is wrong - it's just built differently. The Porsche is really easy to drive into a ditch if you're not careful. It'll break down a lot, but it'll also perform much better for a skilled driver. The Camry, conversely, will be easier for anyone to drive and probably go a lot longer without maintenance. It works fine as a daily driver, and you can tune it so that it'll perform like a Porsche would, but a very well-tuned Camry is probably not going to outperform a well-tuned Porsche and a person used to driving a Porsche is probably going to complain about the Camry's handling.
The trend in western planes has been to use speed, the weight and rigidity of iron to cut through wood before it has time to flex, whereas you see those Japanese planes cutting slowly - but again, traditional Japanese wood is softer and less knotty or wavy than the oak or walnut or exotics that are a staple of traditional western woodworking. Look at the Australian woodworking scene for ex., their native wood species are challenging.
I know nothing much about hand planes except what they are
But why couldn't a metal-bodied plane to do the same? Wouldn't it potentially be stiffer and more stable?
Re: a woooden body, there are a couple reasons it's preferable despite the maintenance - the biggest is that they can be adjusted to fit a specific blade and chip breaker. Since the blade and chip breaker are made by hand, you can't mass produce a body and still have the tool perform. The other big concerns are weight and economy. Metal bodies are way heavier. And if they break or are damaged, can't be easily fixed. A wood body can be made in a few minutes with materials that are usually found on hand.