Historical change in syntax: English and Japanese - an opposite change

I remember skimming an interesting article about historical changes in English and Japanese language. A change which occurred in one of them was reverse in the other. The article made a point that, among others, the changes prove that there is no universal trend in languages. What could this transition in English have been that was reverse in Japanese? Once I have it, finding the article should be feasible. I am quite sure it was syntactic.