Russia I believe. They beat Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. Check out "Feature History" youtube channel for more info. Just type Russo-Japanese war into youtube and it should pop up. Hope this helps.
The fastest way to communicate across continents in the 1500s was by ship. If you wanted to bring a certain message across a continent than there was no faster way than actually sending it on a ship and waiting for the ship to arrive safely to the other continent.