Shipbucket

From Conway 1906-21:

"Although often claimed to be the result of the Japanese battlecruiser Kongo's influence, there is no evidence of this in Admiralty records. The details of Tiger had been settled before the design of the Kongo was complete."

It is more likely the designer of Kongo at Vickers was made privy to details of Tiger.

What was happening was that two design teams (RN and Vickers) were working on battlecruiser designs to improve on the Lion class.
The early RN Tiger sketch designs were concerned first with better layout of the four 13.5in turrets, then with improving power. (see John Roberts British Battlecruisers, new edition 2016). Vickers were developing a design to Japanese requirements to replace 12in guns in the initial scheme with better (14in) (see Hans Lengerer in Warship 2012.) There was close co-operation between Vickers and RN on the 14in gun development (trials on the RN range), and Vickers must have been aware of the Tiger design progress, if not the details, and had built Princess Royal. and were supplying RN 13.5in guns, of which Japan had details. Both designs were developed to final design stage during 1911, after Kongo was laid down. Tiger was laid down by John Brown in June 1912, the latter part of her design process concentrating on proposals to change fuel for more power, after Churchill became First Lord.
That the designs of Kongo and Tiger were generally similar is thus not surprising, but that does not mean that either one was directly copied from the other. More a case of 'great minds think alike'.