It is helpful to distinguish between policies and laws. Policies are pretty diffuse anywhere, and hard to pin down. I think you are mainly talking about specific pieces of legislation. Here, cabinet-sponsored bills are not defeated in Japan, but they are very often introduced and then not brought to a vote.
That would be seen as a failure for the government but no big deal--happens all the time.

The word "implementation" usually means more than passage of a law. Many laws are passed (everywhere) that do not work as expected or hoped, but it is fairly rare (everywhere) for that responsibility to be pinned back on the government or
PM as directly as in the Thatcher case cited.