If I might offer something to this discussion...

It's not standard practice to tap out Japanese chisels, only the plane blades. The reason being that the Japanese plane blade is a compound-tapered form, and fitted precisely to the wood block, or dai, which carries it. Thus removing too much metal from the back flat of the blade to re-establish the hollow would result in a spoiling of the fit of the blade to the block. For that case, tapping out, ura-dashi, is necessary.

With a chisel, there is no fit issue to worry about, so when the bevel edge approaches the edge of the hollow on the back after repeated re-sharpenings, the normal process is to simply re-flatten the back to establish a good hollow again. This re-flattening is a sequential process up through the grits, concentrating most of the strokes on the stone to the last 1 cm of the blade (being careful not to create a step in the blade's back). You don't want to flatten the entire back evenly when re-establishing the hollow, as this prematurely thins out the cutting steel. The pressure while re-flattening needs to be concentrated at the tip of the blade as mentioned. The ideal is to carefully maintain the hollow so that the cutting steel lasts all the way to the shank of the chisel.

As for Japanese tools and 'chipping', that is a question that revolves around the bevel angle more than anything else. A lot of Japanese indigenous woodwork involves softwoods and the chisels you buy from the tool seller are often factory ground with that sort of material in mind - that is, with fairly acute cutting angles. If the chisel edge is prone to chipping, then steepen the bevel until the problem goes away. I have lots of chisels from many different makers and have never encountered significant problem with chipping, though I have received new chisels with a very acute bevel angle that needed re-configuring prior to use.

I recently worked a bunch of Wenge and found a couple of my chisel edges weren't standing up as well as normal (Wenge has a working quality akin to granite), so I steepened the bevels by a couple of degrees and the problem disappeared. If I work with a bunch of softer material next, I'll make the bevels on those same chisels a bit more acute again to obtain the cleanest cut.

Further, some chisels end up with a slightly brittle edge after the tempering process is done as the heating of the blade and quenching have more intense effects down towards the bevel edge, unlike further up where there is more metal mass to absorb the heat. Here is where the blacksmiths skill really can make a difference. This over-heated edge problem tends to be phenomenon more associated to the less-expensive and more mass-produced products, however a chisel or plane blade that is at bit too hard and prone to chipping may only be like that for the first couple of mm of blade, and after that much better.

Conversely, a blade that does not chip at all may stand having its bevel angle pushed down a degree or two - there is a sweet spot for every blade and the material it is worked upon.

Those switching back and forth frequently between different woods of different working qualities will benefit from having dedicated chisel and plane sets, one for softer materials, and one for harder.

As for flattening the backs of large western chisels, um, been there done that and no thanks! Life is too short. It really is an advantage to have a hollowed back on an edge tool for the ease of flattening.

I had a bunch of Barr chisels and drawknives once, and though though it is nice to find a handmade black-smithed product in the West (and I very much wanted to support that) I didn't find the cutting edge as good as my Japanese tools, both in terms of ultimate sharpness and in respect to how well the tool held it's edge. So, I sold all my Barr stuff. I've had similar experiences with a few European planes as well - the cutting steel just doesn't quite, er, cut it.