How come no other non-European countries tried doing what Japan did with its Meiji Restoration and totally overhaul their society so they could survive?
china tried to do the exact same thing, they sent people to japan to study how they did it, sun yat-sen was one of those.
also in egypt there was a similar reform movement but it never really took off.
other countries tried it too, but i can't think of any other good examples right now