Converting US Drivers License to JP License

I wanted to confirm some information that I received form a few people. Japan has a list of countries which can easily convert their foreign drivers licenses into a Japanese license without taking any test. There are some countries that easily convert while others require additional steps. For the United States, this is NOT a Black or While answer. Some Americans have no problem converting their license, while others have the opposite experience.

A friend of mind told me a long time ago that Japan and the USA were in the process of having some type of Drivers License agreement. Unfortunately, the USA has 50 states and every state has a different policy when it comes to Drivers Licenses. As a result, only a select few of the 50 states were approved to be converted into Japanese licenses. The process stopped when Japan realized that trying to work with all 50 states would be close to impossible. As a result, some US states can be converted while others are much more difficult. Is this statement correct?

Regards,
Herman Bongco
Modelworks Direct
Honolulu, Hawaii
Tokyo, Japan

I am not sure whether all facts in this statement are correct, but according to the Tokyo Police website, people with licenses from the following states can easily get a Japanese license while people from other states cannot:
Virginia, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington