What is the role of HR?

I don't get it. I thought the role of HR was to lure potential recruits and then process them if they are eventually chosen. It seems it is different in Japan. An HR representative from an IT consulting company contacted me a couple of weeks ago for a potential position that they felt I could handle. I accepted and went through a series of interviews with various team members and the PM at the client site. I passed all of them but I was not prepared for the final interview with the HR manager. I thought my final meeting with him was going to be him trying to convince me that their company is the company to join, however it was the complete opposite. The tone of the meeting or interview was like this was the very first interview. He was asking me in-depth questions about my technical skills and past experience like my other interviews never happened. He was marking up my resume like it was the first time he looked at it but in reality, it was him who first contacted me to lure me to his company because of my resume. The interview ended up with him not looking optimistic with my future at the company. I was totally shocked. I mean I don't really need this position because I still have my regular job but I just don't understand how these HR folks have so much say in the hiring matter. The team that I would have worked for all wanted me on-board, but it seemed like that didn't pull any weight. The worst part is that this was not my first time experiencing this crap. The exact same thing happened at my current company during my transfer attempt to Japan. I've never experienced this during my professional career in America so is this only a Japanese phenomenon or does this happen in other parts of the world? If it is the former, this experience has really tainted my view of Japan.