The Japanese take this sport seriously and practice a lot so a match in Japan would most likely be a lot more intense.
Most likely, Chinese explorers and merchants brought it over from their homeland. Because, if you study the two languages closely, as I have, you wil notice that some of the characters and kanji...
usually written using Kanji, Katakana, Hiragana and luckily using no prepositions.
Practice
There is no difference.