I've not checked up either in-game - it's the reason I've visited the .Org again, to see if I should bother with the expansion - yet I think it stands to reason the Shogunate should be anyone's choice in the beginning - they were confronted with the most difficult challenge, of making capitalism work in an aristocratic regime (no idea if the game portrays that tension properly of course). In history, there were no differences in their approach to modernisation really - both factions sought it, they simply sought the help of different western states to achieve that.