I am Japan wrong lol, pretty much everyone else on that map was affected by colonialism. I mean, Japan was affected too, but Japan's response to colonialism was "that's a good idea, we'll do it even harder" so I don't think they count as another arm of Britannia.
I don't think there's any consistent association between side of the road and side of the escalator. E.g. within Japan, I think either Kansai or maybe Osaka specifically does it opposite to most of the rest of the country.
I was actually surprised when I was in the UK last year and people were standing on the right in the escalators. But they walked on the left in crowded places. I was expecting all pedestrian traffic to be left-sided, but it was more mixed, like their measurement systems...