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Mindset? I dunno. The reason the Samurai wore the armour that they did was due to lack of easily accessible iron ore deposits. The primary reason why European society advanced so quickly in hard tech was extremely easy to mine iron and other metals. I would personally think that the amazing things the Japanese were doing with lacquered wood (their lacquers were stunningly good) would've produced wonderful shields.
Admittedly, the romantic ideal of the samurai is such that they had zero concern for defense, only concern for offense. Such a mind would not think about shields as it would be unworthy. The common soldier however would be highly interested in preserving life and limb.
It is an interesting question and bears looking into!
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