>>510831296
Russia was more industrialized during the early 1900s, they had railways to everywhere when Japan was basically a carbon copy of the old Prussian empire back when they were colloquially known as an 'army with a country attached to it'. And it's not me speculating either Japan's Meiji Constitution was modelled directly on the Prussian one, so no they weren't particularly developed and famously some people like Saigo Takemori outright wanted to put all funding into military and eschew development entirely. What development did exist in Japan was very minor, it was still borderline feudal. Something to note about the Russo-Japanese war is that they were losing until Jacob Schiff (same guy who funded the Bolsheviks) financed them out of nowhere and turned the tide of the war. Their admiral was about ready to kill himself, and suddenly Brits with their Anglo-Japanese alliance provided covert support and forced Russia to sail entirely around Africa by blocking the Suez. In addition to this they also gave financial support and updated Japanese on the Russian positions. Russia likely suspected this but what they didn't expect was financing from Schiff turning their backwater navy into something that could actually resist.
