I don't think Japan is better at adapting foreign ideas. In fact I think it's a lot worse than China who actually had to deal with foreigners throughout it's history. Looking at modern times as reference where the average people have even worse English than China who was literally closed off from the world for a while and are more ignorant about the world on how things actually work. It's an island after all. But unlike the Brits they made no interest in exploring the world and in fact did the opposite for a while before modernization.
What helped is Japan was just the right size. Emperor Meiji could gather enough resources and men to kill off all the samurai/military generals who opposed him and his reforms. It's funny how modern Japan jerks off it's noble samurai so much yet gives little attention to this part. I've seen more media from the west covering this like the Last Samurai or that Shotgun 2 expansion pack game.
Qing china is just too damn large. Imagine current china with outer Mongolia and Taiwan as well but with much slower pace and a lot more morons in government. You will need at least 100 years to get anything done and Europeans had battleships just parked outside the shores.
