Ive seen an image where Japanese officers drive a Pz.Kpfw VI 'Tiger'. Did they take that kind of technology back home or not? Do we have cases that the Germans and Japanese learned from eachother?
In 1943 they Japanese did purchase a number of German tanks, 2 pz3 a Panther and a Tiger, but only the Pz3 reached Japan. Weirdly the Japanese government lent the Tiger to the German military.
However for much of the war the only way to transfer equipment was by submarine though there was a passenger air service for a while.
The technology transfer seemed to have been rather one sided, while the Japanese did provide Germany with a sample of its weapons technology most of its cargo was raw materials (rubber, tungsten etc) though in very small quantities.
On the other hand German showered Japan with technology ranging from engines and bombs to gun control systems. There was also a lot of blueprints and technical personnel moved about. There is also the case of U-234 which is suggested to have been carrying Uranium when it was sunk but the specifics are unknown.
Just a follow-up question, if that's OK:
In all documentaries etc. I've seen on WW2, I rarely see Japanese armour mentioned at all, and when it is, it basically boils down to "Japanese tanks were shit". Are there any specific reasons they never developed(or bought/stole/adopted) effective tanks, or was it simply not made a priority?