Why Fuso and German battleships embodied different geography

How did the Fuso class compare with the German preference for heavier battleship armour?

The designs answered different geographies: restricted North Sea and Baltic waters for Germany, and a much more maneuverable Pacific theater for Japan.

The comparison begins with where each navy expected its battleships to fight. German ships prepared for the North Sea and Baltic, where geography restricted maneuver and made surviving heavy contact especially important. Japanese ships prepared for the Pacific, where fleets could use wider movement, range, and operational positioning. Fuso's balance and German emphasis on armour should therefore be read as responses to different theaters rather than one universal hierarchy of design quality.