Notes

Similarity 1: Both nations attempted reforms to boost their respective economies. Japan successfully industrialized through the Meji Restoration which helped Japan catch up to the leading economic powers in the world at that time, just as the Chinese attempted the Self-Strengthening Movement in which ambitioned for modernization and recovery of economy after losses following the second Opium War.
Similarity 2: Japan and China had government leaders who largely impacted their economies. The Japanese had Yamagata Aritomo who incorporated many reforms based on western ideals to improve the nation's banks, relations with trading economic powers, and internal capital stability. Similarly, China had Empress Dowager Cixi who did not want any foreign influences in China, therefore slowing China's economic progress through unimproving technologies and slow industrialization.
Similarity etc 3: Another similarity is that both nations were constantly pressured by western powers to trade and enter the industrialized world. When Japan's government sent students and officials to scout the major western nations, they found out that they needed to follow the path of industrialization to compete with the economic powerhouses. China were also pressured even after the Opium Wars when Europeans wanted Chinese goods and for them to open their ports for trade.
Difference 1: While Japan opened up to foreign and influences to reform economically throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, China restricted themselves from outside ideas and principles. The Meji Restoration implemented beneficial western style industries that boosted Japan into a leading economic power, whereas China lagged behind in technology, industry, and education as a result of Empress Dowager Cixi and the Boxer Rebellion secluding the nation from western influences.
Difference 2: The Japanese government incorporated zaibatsu which kept a close relationship between the government and companies, while the Chinese did not regulate a stable system connecting companies to its government. By keeping a close relationship with companies, the Japanese government was able to control banking and capital much more efficiently than the Chinese that used a communist system of disregarding many of the relations between the government and companies needed to better the economy.
Difference 3: Japan kept a constant stable system regulating the government to the economy while the Chinese changed its governing and economic principles various times throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Japan's government constantly encouraged modernizing through western models to better the economy ever since the Meji Restoration whereas the Chinese changed from the Self-Strengthening Movement which welcomed foreign economic influence to Empress Dowager's seclusion policies.