Concerning Pronouns

I was listening (evesdropping, I suppose, but it was rather inescapable due to the close quarters of a 16-passenger van) to a discussion between two girls on my basketball team, one from Japan, the other, South Korea; I noted that the latter used "it" several times during the conversation, where most English-speakers would have used "he." "It" was never used in a way that is grammatically incorrect, but a few times, the term just seemed out of place.