re: shogi, chess
Also in chess, on a basic level defending the king means: castle the king, avoid moving pawns in front of wherever the king castles, and have a knight around (and ideally a bishop to compensate for any pawn move made). Castling is a single move that also brings a rook into the game. It doesn't require separate preparation and it's part of developing pieces.
In shogi, you need to spend several moves castling. It seems that those individual moves are also less multi-purpose.
re: shogi, chess
OTOH when I was new to tournament chess play I was struggling to figure out when to castle because it felt like a "waste" move and like I had much more to do elsewhere. I'd basically castle because that's what I was told to do.
So I'm guessing if I get better at shogi I'll get the intuition for those things. But it's very weird to be a beginner at a game and already have such an uneven skill/understanding profile.