Although japan was dominant over Russia in the colonizing of china, japan was by far less advanced technologically than Russia. While japan had katanas and leather armor, Russia was getting into some pretty good metallurgy. It was mostly culture that swept into Russia which "westernized" it. One ship from America came to japan and that ship alone could've destroyed and burned down all of japan. That's how technologically un advanced japan was. All in all I would say its peter the great was better at the time.