Ok, you're right, I was slightly mistaken. I tested it on the other Japanese furniture but didn't realize it all defaulted to 0 (doesn't most furniture default to 1?). But there is still a problem. The "Kawaii Chair" item appears under the carpet, when it should be on top (and of course chairs need to be set to layer 0 to work properly). I didn't purchase the other new chairs yet, so I can't speak for those.

Edit - Yeah most furniture does default to layer 1 when you place it (except chairs, beds, carpets, and the like which default to 0, as they need to be on layer 0 to function properly, as I said). So that's why it threw me when the new furniture didn't default to layer 1.