I take the point that cultural differences might make an impact, but I'm not sure you can entirely explain away the discrepancies in countries' Covid responses with sweeping generalisations of hundreds of millions of people. It was never a given that Germany or Japan or NZ would have a better time of it than us - their outbreaks still had to be managed effectively.
These countries make decisions based on evidence, not based on politics, assumptions or face-saving PR. That's why fans are back in the Bundesliga - test events proved it could be done safely. We have had a number of test events with up to 1,000 fans at sports grounds going off without a hitch, and non-league clubs have also shown it can be done, but for our government, assumptions about how fans will behave and the fear of a negative public perception seem to outweigh the evidence of their own eyes.
As a balance on Covid 19 in Germany Angel Markel dilemma is discussed in this article in the Spectator
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https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/germany-s-reckless-coronavirus-response-is-over"
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https://www.dw.com/en/germany-bans-fans-until-end-of-october-following-covid-19-spike/a-54713242"