Empires: Islamic vs. Asian

One similarity between the Ottoman, Safavid, Mughals and the Tokugawa Japan, Ming, Qing China is that they all did not look for ways to improve their technology. They feared that change would bring political instability. They have this similarity because they could both saw other examples of Europeans and change that ended in the termination of a country.
One difference is the faith that they held, in that the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughals belonged to the Islamic faith, where as the Tokugawa Japanese, Ming and Qing people operated based on Confucianism. They have different religions/philosophies because of the different histories of they cultural area. The Islamic empires were founded by nomadic Turks who may have seen Islam first and believed it to be the true faith, where as the Tokugawa Japanese, the Ming and Qing would have seen their ancestors following Confucianism.