Maybe you didn't follow the news at the time of the Japan meteoric rise in the 80s/90s (and the even more prevalent accusations of copying etc in 60s/70s).
Here's a speech from the House of Representatives (1989):
https://fas.org/irp/congress/1989_cr/h890712-japan.htm
And here's the blurb of an earlier 1983 book -- do the accusations sound similar?
"This analysis of Japanese business practices covers industries from automobiles to computers and argues that the success of Japanese business is founded upon methods such as industrial espionage, government subsidies leading to unfair pricing, dumping, and exploitation of domestic labor"
Here is a famous example:
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/23/business/japanese-executi...
In the 90s, when Japanese started dominating and buying American firms left and right accusations in the press and politicians got even worse -- and the political threats and warnings against Japan were common occurence (similar to Trump's anti-globalization speeches/promises, but at a time when America-first wasn't a taboo of both Republicans and Democrats, and politicians pay more lip service to factory / blue collar jobs). There were also tariffs involved, and the whole thing...
But then again, aside financially, Japan was a neutered ally of the US since WWII (when Japan was put under military supervision), and their dominance was capped -- whereas China is 8x Japan's population, and not subservient politically and diplomatically. It makes sense things can get uglier in this case re: the commerce war.
E.g., one difference was that Japan could be pushed (as did Germany, another neutered since WWII ally at the time), into this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_Accord