The trainers i spoke to in the UK when i went to some meetings last year all said they spell horses . Whilst successful can't say any of them were household names but certainly had worked for some of the big names in UK racing . MY understanding is that whilst they may not spell for long , especially summer horses , they were brought into light work mainly because of winter conditions didn't allow that and just pottered around with . A lot of the trainers have indoor arena's big enough for trotting and cantering during this period . The training methods are very different to Australasia , lots of long slow work on downs and whilst they can fit a horse for a first up win at 2400mtr i think you'll find those horses have been in work for a lot longer than 2 months .
As for the Japanese , My understanding is those big gun horses that come to Aussie have basically been in work for years , no spells , just periods of very light work , i suspect very similar to Singapore and HK .
Personally i don't know of any respected trainer that would bring a horse in from a spell and have it in a 2000 mtrs race 8 weeks later . i would suspect if this happened it would be bottom a horse . Modern horses are no where tough as they used to be , they are much finer than in the past . That said , in horse racing there is always the exception .