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I'm not sure I know the answer, but I like the different philosophies. The Germans deliver a high level of driver involvement, and perhaps expect the driver to be similarly highly involved in the care and feeding of the car. The Japanese deliver remarkable levels of reliability and longevity, but, to my tastes, still lag behind the Germans in feel and driver involvement.
Alas, the gap is narrowing over time, and not in a good way. Instead, there is regression toward the mean, where Japanese cars are gaining feel and German cars are losing it. My 10-year-old E92 M3 feels special--and it is special--with its 414 hp 8250-rpm V8. The F generation M3s and M4s are fast cars, but they are turbo motors, which is what everything is becoming, and the legendary BMW steering feel has gone pretty numb with the switchover to electric assist.
Now, in the case of the new BMW Z4/Toyota Supra, we have a shared BMW Toyota platform, and the regression toward the mean is nearly complete.
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